> Rebirth of Magic: The Misfit
>  by The Blue EM2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Walking on Sunshine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is said that in times of  danger, heroes will come together to face the rising tide of evil, and  fight back to preserve the light. These heroes can come from the  strangest of places.

This is the story of one such hero. Although  she appears to be Sunny Starscout, you may be surprised to learn her  true origins...

Good morning! Nice of you to stop off at my smoothie cart. It's not the biggest piece of kit, I know, but it's more than ideal for my needs and those of my customers.

What flavour? Oh, of course. I'll get that blending whilst we chat. It may take a while, but It'll be worth it, I know it.

I don't recognise you from around here. Truth be told I wasn't always a local around here either, and I don't mean it in the sense the locals used to see me as a troublemaking nuisance.

My name? I'm Sunny Starscout, nice to meet you. But I'm going to let you in on a secret, one that not many ponies know. I'm not originally from here. Crazy, right?

I wasn't even born an earth pony. That was something that came along later in my life, as crazy at it sounds.

In order to understand my story, we'll need to go backwards in time to a cold day in another land- not beyond Equestria, if that's what you're wondering.





Life often has a habit of throwing curveballs at us, if you know what I mean. Mine was no exception. I was originally one of these things sometimes referenced in pony books called a human. Not often you see one. In fact, I haven't seen one in an incredibly long time.

I was also originally their equivalent of a stallion. The exact word escapes my mind right now, as it's been an incredibly long time since I last used any of the vocabulary related to that world. One of the wildest part of life in that world was seeing this place as a fictional world. Crazy, right? As far as we were concerned, Equestria was a made up place for this TV show called My Little Pony. Seems weird saying it seeing as I'm here right now, but I'd probably best get on with the story.

I was a guy called Tom, who lived in a northern town in a place called England. It was neither too big nor too small, and that was the sort of place I liked. The type of place that doesn't swamp you in its massiveness, but at the same time isn't so small you get bored easily when you go about.

I was, on the outside, a fairly normal guy who liked the sorts of things that guys liked in that region. But at the same time, I was also a brony.

They're a subculture in the human world, consisting of people, usually adult males, who are fans of My Little Pony. Originally the term was coined to refer to fans of Friendship is Magic, but has since been applied to refer to people who like the other generations too, such as Generation 5.

Although nopony- sorry, nobody- in my group enjoyed G5 to varying degrees, I was certainly the most passionate about it. It would have been effective heresy to admit it to the people in that group, but I actually preferred G5 to G4 at points, which I guess is part of the advantage of being part of its fandom from the beginning rather than jumping onboard partway through and constantly playing catchup with the content.

And we open at one of those meetings of our group. We often used it as a place to exchange crafts, fanmade things, and generally talk about the show alongside some side debates, such as which colours for MLP characters would work best on 40K models. I was an avid painter back then. Kinda hard to do now with hooves instead of hands.

I was a conversation with another fan, and offered to purchase some memorabilia he had on sale. The items in question were a few replicas of items that belonged to Generation 5's protagonist, Sunny Starscout, namely replicas of the badges she had pinned to the strap of her bag. That was always a fun thing to get, seeing the fans work to recreate show items with their own resources. I've got them pinned to the strap now, if you'd like to see.

Sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I? Locals say I have a bad habit of talking at length about things that don't neccesarily interest other ponies. Comes with the disability, I'm afraid.

We exchanged the items, and I then popped over to the kareoke section, where one of the pegasisters was absolutely slaying it with a Pipp cosplay. This fondness for the show, and the items I had purchased, got me thinking.

What if Equestria was real?

I know many bronies speculate about what living in Equestria would actually be like and wouldn't mind exploring the place. But for me it was a bit different. I genuinely wanted to see their world, experience what living there was like, and see the incredible sites and vistas that were there to be seen. Imagine what wonders could be found off the camera when the characters were travelling about!

It sounded ridiculous, I know. I was speculating about the offscreen components of a land invented for a cartoon about talking horses intended to sell horse toys to little girls. The writing was great, don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day MLP has always partly existed to promote the toyline, much like Transformers used to be a series of 30 minute toy adds.





I got back to my home later that day and locked the door. The weather had changed, and it had started to rain. I sat down to check my phone for emails. I believe you have those in Equestria? I took a look, and the first one surprised me. At the top of the list was a message from a person marked PROTECTOR.

I suspected spam, but it was worth checking out anyway. I clicked on it and looked.

You like Sunny, right? said the message.

I was surprised. I replied, yes.

A reply appeared a few seconds later. How would you like to take her place?

I thought for a moment. This was probably just some brony tracking thing for a story. I replied yes.

The next response surprised me. Then Arise, brave hero! Take her place!

Before I had a real chance to react, there was a bolt of energy, and the buttons I had bought lit up. Before long, something began to happen.

My face felt funny. I noticed the world seemed to be getting larger around me. Audio was briefly lost for some reason, and I reached up to try and figure out why. There were no ears. But that problem resolved itself when a new set attached themselves to the top of my head, making everything incredibly loud as they rotated about like RADAR dishes.

A quick check of the front of my face revealed huge eyes, and that my mouth and nose had been replaced by a muzzle. I'd already shrunk through my clothes, which were piling up in a heap all over the place.

Next to go were my arms, which snapped to the opposite direction and seemed to be designed for four legged motion. Moments later my hands morphed into hooves, my fingers shrinking back into them and the remains hardening into a hoof.

This process repeated itself for the rear legs, as they were now, before my chest began to expand in size. My rear began to tingle as something was removed and replaced with something else, and I also gained a tail. It was purple, and seemed to stick up. My skin was itching at the same time.

I also seemed to have purple hair, and a braid, which took some getting used to. Whatever it was that was happening seemed to be over, so I shook the clothes off and galloped to the bathroom. My reduced height made everything seem massive, but I found a solution in standing on top of my toilet and looking in the mirror that way. Good thing I'd thought to close the lid that morning.

I looked in the mirror. The light blue eyes. The orange fur. Purple mane and tail, complete with braid.

Even the cutie mark was there. As bizarre as it might seem, it appears I got my wish of sorts. I was Sunny Starscout!

"Well, that was a strange day," I said, noting the voice of Vanessa Hudgens coming out of my vocal chords. My nonchalant reaction to changing species might seem odd, but I had read many stories online of this sort of thing happening, including a G5 hater who was changed into Sunny, so I knew what to expect.

What surprised me was the process was painless. I hadn't really felt anything odd at all. I'd half imagined changing into a pony would be agonisingly painful.

Before I could do any more pondering, a white light began to fill her vision. I guessed this was the 'take her place' bit. I closed my eyes to shield them, and waited to be transported to Equestria.

My whole life was about to change.
> I was Just Guessing, at Numbers and Figures...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the white light cleared, I found myself in a familiar property to anybody who knows My Little Pony: a New Generation. I seemed to be the kitchen of the lighthouse, although the lack of walls in many part of the property meant that the rooms somewhat blurred together. To my left was the stove, which was curiously positioned not far from the door, and presumably where meals were prepared (clearly gas or electric piping existed in G5 Equestria). Set to the side was an unadorned table, presumably where the building's occupant ate meals or planned other things.

I looked to the right, and saw the familiar study of Argyle Starshine, still filled with old artefacts and equipment from the old days. The elevator was somewhere nearby, and I had surveyed one side of the building.

I turned to spot a set of drawers with a flat top nearby, and took a look at the top. Sitting on it was an old photograph and a pair of glasses. Argyle's glasses.

I remembered when in the story I was. This is clearly some point after Argyle's death, then. This was, of course, Sunny's shrine to her dad. My dad, I guess, seeing as I was her. I remembered being somewhat caught off guard when the film hinted he'd died when I first watched it. I guess it plays into our fears of losing people, or ponies, we love.

I took a look through some other parts of the building, and took a close look through the study to see if I had any clues. I glanced closely at the old pieces of paper and the ancient assemblies of equipment and artefacts, hunting through them to see if there was anything I should be doing in order to proceed forward with my quest. But I found relatively little apart from speculation about the past. Some details were incorrect, such as some dates, and the order of some events was... confusing, to say the least. There was a note on one book in the Collected Tales of Harmony series.

I'm guessing these are the stories that Argyle read to Sunny as a child. I looked through the books, and found a note sitting on the ninth volume, stating the authorship of this particular volume is disputed and that it is suspected Twilight Sparkle didn't write it. I chucked at that. Clearly this was the pony world's equivalent of showing disdain for Season 9 of Friendship is Magic.

I went on the lift to check the next level. The lift, or elevator if we're going to use US English (which the film seemed to do), was a rickety thing powered by ropes and gears. Only one pony at a time on this!

I arrived at the top to find a mountain of things. Papers sat on a desk opposite to the main glass walls. The central lamp had been removed in order to create more space, and several extra features had been added in order to assist the occupant. Some machinery sat in the centre, with no clear idea as to its purpose. The wall had a board on it, and some connections were being drawn on it between various different events that had happened. There was also a calender. I had spotted another one with today marked in red, at least based on the electronic timekeeping device sitting on the side. This was a duplicate of that, with a marking in the same colours. I trotted back slightly to study the evidence, trying to make sense of it myself.

A small lantern sat underneath the wall, the bottom facing towards the central chamber of the lamp room. I spotted the Earth Pony crystal in there and removed it, placing it in my back. That would save me time later.

If I could describe what being in this world whilst knowing what's coming is like, I guess the appropriate analogy is coming back to playing an RPG after many years and knowing where all the important items you'll need later are, so you can pick them up now to save time later on. I know it feels strange to be comparing a video game to life here, but the analogy fits in my opinion.

I went out through the door and looked out over the bay. It then hit me. That was Equestria unfolding before me. Those blue skies were Equestrian. The clouds were Equestrian. I was breathing Equestria's air. After so many years I had finally achieved the dream of so many bronies and I had gone to Equestria! True, it wasn't exactly the most peaceful period in Equestrian history, but at the same time beggars can't be choosers can they?

I lingered there for a few moments before looking at the time. "Oh sugercubes! Better hurry up!" It still felt a bit weird hearing Vanessa Hudgens' voice coming out of my vocal chords, but speaking was a lot easier than I thought it would be. My teeth were flatter (although Equestrian ponies did seem to be omnivores based on the show), but speaking was the exact same principle. My mouth could still make the appropriate shapes for vocalising sounds.

I took a quick glance over the map and its notes, showing where to enter the Factory and which equipment to bring. I then proceeded downstairs and strapped on my helmet and roller blades. I moved forward- and immediately fell over.

"Ow!" I groaned as I pushed myself back up. "Well, I guess that shows the importance of wearing a crash helmet. I've actually got a plan this time, dad. Wish me luck!" I moved forward to the door and closed it behind me. Hearing a familiar thump, I popped back in and straightened the photo of Sunny and Argyle before shutting the door again.

As I took position outside, I suddenly heard music starting up from some unknown source. I had wondered for many years how songs worked in Equestria, and it seemed that the singer just got the knowledge of the song they'd be singing from the ether. There was just one slight problem. I was slightly shaky on the lyrics of 'Gonna be my Day'. Oh well. Here we go. Here's hoping I don't make a complete fool of myself.

"Good morning, sun!
No time to chat, I gotta run!
'Cause I've got places to be!

"So much to do/
Excited, yes, and nervous, too!
A change is starting with me!

"I never worry 'bout
Upsetting carts, hardened hearts
Or wonder "Will I belong?"

Before I knew what had happened, I was passing through the entrance to Maretime Bay. Well, that was quick. I was wondering why the scenery was flying by so fast. I shifted over to the side to drop off some pro-unity items at a nearby table, stopping to watch some anti-unicorn rant. I then got on my way.

"I've heard it enough, I'm callin' their bluff/
I'll never get lost in the grey!
There's somethin' inside, burns bigger than pride/
Shines out of me lighting the way!"

The chorus shouldn't be too difficult. A quick glance over my shoulder as I hitched up to a portable smoothie carrier revealed Sprout was already running after me. Oh well. He could use the exercise.

"Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (be my day)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (oh-oh-oh-oh)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (gonna be my day)
Gonna be my day!" (ooh-ooh)

I had no clue where the backing singers had come from, but singing those words seemed hilariously ironic considering what was coming. Unfortunately, as Sprout rocketed into the air on a skateboard and crashed through a floral arrangement, I was coming up on the second verse. I would have to make some of this up and hope it worked.

"Hey there, hello!
The friends I make, the friends I know/
Today you answer my call!" (Hello, anypony there?)

I don't remember that last bit in the film. I continued on my way, trying to remember the words.

"Instead of hide!
Instead of staying stuck inside!
Instead of building your fall!"

I needed something that rhymed with hide!

"Come on and party with me/
Join the band, understand!
We'll all be singin' this song!"

Ok, that went better than I thought it would. As I dropped off a pair of unicorn and pegasus balloons and cleaned up some racist graffiti, replacing it with unity stickers, I turned back for no good reason and rolled across the tram tracks second before the town's sole tram rolled past. At least I was back in the safety of the pre-chorus now.

"I've heard it enough, I'm callin' their bluff/
I'll never get lost in the grey!
There's somethin' inside, burns bigger than pride/
Shines out of me lighting the way!"

"Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (be my day)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (oh-oh-oh-oh)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (gonna be my day)
Gonna be my day!" (ooh-ooh)

I kept going to avoid the trail of destruction emerging behind me as Sprout seemed to be demolishing every floral arrangement in Maretime Bay. He must have had a seriously bad day. I heard the notes begin to shift, indicating we were about to go into the middle eight. I watched as an Earth Pony adult screamed at the sight of a unicorn balloon. If only they knew the truth.

I couldn't help but notice I was thinking more and more like Sunny as this went along. Perhaps I was getting too into character.

"Everyone's afraid/
Always judgin', never budgin'!
Ain't it time we made/
The team, the dream?
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhh!"

It was time to stop beating about the bush and get on my way to the CanterLogic Factory. I Turned back and started to sing the chorus, but the notes I was singing clashed horribly with the backing. I was very confused. Was there an extra set of words I didn't know about?

I waited for the melody to move to the next bit of the song, but it simply looped back to the start of that section. Clearly it was my fault for not listening to the album version. I racked my brains for the words, and finally got something.

Let's flash a new smile, like a crocodile/
Let's sparkle right out of the grey!
We'll open our eyes, sun's quite a surprise/
And finally able to say!"

It finally let me move to the chorus. What I'd sung probably made no sense whatsoever, but it fitted the rhythm anyway. I then resumed singing.

"Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (gonna be my day)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (gonna be my day)
Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be my day! (gonna be my day)
Gonna be my day!" (be my... day!)

(Oh-oh-oh-oh)
"Gonna be my day!"
(Oh-oh-oh-oh)
"Gonna be my day!"

The song was not starting to fade out as I followed the tram to the factory. I slowed down, fully waiting for Hitch to jump out from behind a notice board. Though something stunned me. When I was a human, I wasn't exactly a testament to human might. And yet I'd just skated about at speed, doing lots of strenous activities, and been singing at the same time, and I wasn't out of breath.

Sunny's got some serious stamina.
> You Spin me Right Round
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The CanterLogic Factory loomed in front of me, with its large central glass tower being the most prominent and notable feature from the ground. I was aware that the airy front and large amounts of glass was meant to produce a feeling of lightness and airy interiors, but I still couldn't help but feel it looked like a villain's lair when the villain was trying too hard to disguise his (or her) base of operations. Still, I knew what I had to do in order to keep things moving.

Sure enough, just as clockwork, Hitch emerged from behind a sign. "Aha! There you are, Sunny!"

I smiled as nicely as I could. How long had he been standing behind that sign? "Good morning, Sheriff Hitch. I see you brought the entire squad with you."

Truth be told I couldn't remember the exact wording of the entire conversation, but I knew the gist of the exchange and decided to follow along that instead.

Hitch sighed, as if annoyed. "I have no idea why these guys follow me around. It's like I'm some sort of magnet to them." He glanced to me. "As for you? What do you want?"

"I rather assumed my portable smoothie cart would be a bit of a clue," I replied, indicating behind me. Hitch seemed to have gone off the script as well, which was interesting.

"Good thing for you I know exactly how this is gonna be done," Hitch said. "I'll take the cart in for you, sell the smoothies before the show, then pay you back. That way we avoid the usual shambles."

"Shambles?" I asked. "Sheriff Hitch, you wouldn't be accusing me of being a regular lawbreaker, would you?"

"We know exactly how this works, Sunny. I go and watch the show, you disrupt it, then I lead you out and drop you off at home with a caution. But not this year, because I planned ahead."

Just then, Sprout arrived. Based on his physical appearance and breathing, he was worn out by what at most was three minutes of exercise. "I... didn't.... let... her... out of... my... sight!" he wheezed, desperately trying not to look a fool in front of Hitch. It wasn't working, sadly.

I glanced back. "You need some water? You don't look great."

"I'll... be... fine," he replied, even though he clearly wasn't.

Hitch snorted. "I heard her, Sprout. Sunny doesn't exactly have the quietest of singing voices. You know, if you didn't have this rocky relationship with the law I'd probably hire you as a deputy as well, considering your stamina." He then turned away. "Well, time to get security arrangements up and running."

I started to move forward before Sprout blocked my way. "Nope. I'll take that, not you. Can't have you subjecting the townsfolk to your yearly dose of craziness, can we?"

So not only did the characters hear each other singing, which presumably means they also hear the backing music, they seemed to know my moves. Granted, Sunny was a regular nuisance around here, but that wasn't exactly at the top of my list of priorities right now. "Hey! Be careful with it! Those took a while to make!"

Hitch and Sprout were now well out of earshot, but this presented me with an opportunity. I snuck along the side of the building and found a drainage duct I could squeeze down. It was a bit tight, but then again I reckoned I could keep moving.





Turns out going down the duct wasn't the best of ideas. The duct connected directly to the waste disposal room, meaning that partway down I had picked up the smell of seaweed. Presumably this is why Izzy was amazed I didn't smell of fish later in the film- without a chance to wash between the two incidents Sunny must have smelled absolutely horrendous. Getting down the duct was a little harder than I'd thought, as it narrowed briefly along, which was annoying to say the least.

Still, I made it out the other end and eventually found myself in the hazardous materials room. Inside were some objects marked radioactive. I will admit I wasn't in a mood to wipe my brow or sweat rust, so I grabbed a nearby hazmat suit to blend in. After that, it was a case of following the other ponies down the corridor. This was all very exciting. It felt as though I was in a spy movie, trying to recover the top secret documents from the villain's lair before I got caught. I finally arrived in the pit room below the presentation. I could here it going on upstairs, complete with Phyllis spouting her discriminatory rhetoric.

I ditched the suit, grabbed my things, and then stepped onto the elevator platform in preparation for the next section of the presentation. "Here goes nothing," I said. "Time to show them the truth."

The platform raised into position, and true to form the ponies watching looked annoyed. "How did she get in there?" Phyllis demanded. "Who is responsible for this outrageous display of incompetence?"

"Ponies of Maretime Bay!" I shouted, trying to be heard through the glass. "I know the future, and we must be ready for it! I know what will happen, and I can prove the future!"

It could see Hitch rolling his eyes. Although his words were inaudible from this range, it was probably some sort of remark of frustration.

"I can show you this. In a few moments, this platform will flip over and add boots to my hooves, and after that a grabber will drop from the left and take my sign."

And sure enough, both of these things came to pass, complete with the helmet being added. Damn, this thing was seriously uncomfortable. Then again, it was designed to be worn by a crash test dummy. "As you can see, both of those things happened, and were perfectly predicted! You have to beWHOA!"

The grabber for the flight demonstration had activated ahead of schedule, and shortly after the wing components were added it began the automated operations sequence. The world began to revolve, rather like I had eaten too much cheese, and the ponies out there were frantically trying to switch the equipment off.

Then the splatapaults opened up. If you've ever been shot with a paintball, you'll have a good idea of those splattering all over me felt like. Eventually the grabber was detached, and I smashed through the glass before landing flat on my face.

"Now you know," I gasped, severely winded. "You have to-"

"Take her to an asylum," Phyllis interrupted. "Your unity nonsense was bad enough, but knowing the future? You'll go the way of your father if you're not careful. Take her away, Hitch."

Hitch helped me to my hooves. "Let's go, Sunny," he said, as he led me away. As this happened, Phyllis continued her speech.

"That is what the mind of a pony poisoned by unicorn and pegasus propaganda looks like. Do you want to end up like her?"





Later on, I'd been dropped off at the location of my smoothie shack. Hitch was not sympathetic to my plight. "What is wrong with you?" he asked, bluntly. "Why do you find following the rules so hard? And do you need to see a doctor?"

"Because the rules and laws of Maretime Bay are wrong," I replied flatly. "We all used to be friends, and we will be again. I know what's coming, and you'd be wise to listen to me!"

"I don't make the laws, I simply enforce them," Hitch said. "Take your complaint up with Congress, not me. On the topic of laws, care to guess how many you broke?"

"No, but I imagine you'll tell me each and every one."

"We'd be here for the rest of the day if we did. It's that many! It's my duty to protect everypony, and I can't keep playing favourites forever." 

"You just said everypony. That includes unicorns and pegasi!"

"You know what I mean." Hitch stopped, and decided to change his tone. "Those old stories of the Guardians of Harmony, the books, the TV show? It's all made up. None of it really happened. They were a series of stories written to appeal to little foals. This is the real world, and it's time to grow up. I'm the last friend you have in this town. Do you really want to lose me too?"

I shook my head. "No."

Hitch nodded. "I'll see you later, Sunny."

As he trotted away I sat on a bench to mope. None of it had worked. And with no clue where I was in the story I had no idea how many more years of this I would endure. Sunny's life really wasn't the paradise I had imagined it to be. She really was born in the wrong century.

And having nopony to guide her- erm, me- made it all the more difficult. "I wish you were here, dad."

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion from my left, and I trotted towards the town entrance and saw ponies running in fear. I thought I knew what was coming next.

Sure enough, the crowd of running ponies intensified, and I was knocked to the floor. As I tried to get up, my eyes widened.

It was Izzy! Izzy had arrived!

Her eyes seemed to recognise me, and her next words caught me completely off guard.

"Hi, Sunny. Long time no see!"
> And if I go Around with You...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was stuck frozen for a few seconds. Izzy had turned up around the right time in the story but-

HOW DID SHE KNOW MY NAME?

Izzy isn't meant to know who I am yet, or any of the others yet. Come to think of it, neither should I. There was no time for testing my theory right now, so I simply stammered out the first thing that came to mind.

"U- unicorn!"

With that word the entire town descended into pandemonium. Ponies were running and screaming in every conceivable direction. Some even jumped down manholes to try and escape from Izzy, whilst others boarded up shops and took refuge indoors.

Izzy looked at me. "Is everypony playing hide and seek? "I see you!"

Another pony screamed and jumped off the edge of the railing into the water.

Izzy frowned. "I was hoping they'd be more friendly. Still, I'd best be careful. Wouldn't want to end up in a trap!"

This was getting stranger by the minute. I had to get her out of here before law enforcement showed up. Speaking of law enforcement, I could hear Hitch bellowing orders to other ponies at the top of his lungs. I questioned how I could hear him that far away, but then I remembered ponies have very sensitive hearing.

The best solution in the circumstances was to try and stick to the script as closely as I could. I noticed Izzy had started wandering forward. "Now, if I recall correctly there's a trap about here..."

I leaped in and pushed her out of the way just as the trap activated. I looked to her and encouraged her to head away from this place. "I've got to get you out of here! There's a side street we can use to avoid the fire from the batteries! Come on!"

The two of us galloped down another street and raced round a bend, the percussive quadruple beat of two ponies galloping ringing out against the cobblestones of the street. I glanced back to see Izzy was still following, just at a slower pace. "I've never seen this street before! it's so weird seeing the street layout from a first person view!"

"Come on, we have to keep going!" I called.

"What's got you so worked up, Sunny?" Izzy asked.

"The Earth Ponies are terrified of unicorns, and by logical extension you. We need to escape or else they'll throw you in jail, or maybe worse!"

Izzy nodded whilst drawing her hoof across her neck. "I hadn't thought of that. But- STOP! Splatapaults in the next street!"

I stuck my head round the corner and nearly got a splatapault ball in the eye for my troubles. A small crew was manning the batteries and bombarding everything in sight- including Earth Ponies.

"Clearly collateral damage isn't a concept to Phyllis," I said to myself, noticing she was directing the fire of the batteries. I looked back to Izzy. "Eventually they'll have to stop to reload. That's our opening. When I say go, we go."

Izzy nodded. "Gotcha!"

Eventually, the batteries stopped firing. "Bring out the next ammo box!"

I glanced back. "GO!"

We dashed across the street and made it back to the coastal road just as the splatapaults opened fire again. Just a few more obstacles to go and we'd be home free. Those obstactles being a few unicorn traps and some angry townsponies, some of whom had seemingly decided to fight back.

I dodged between a few of the trap markers whilst Izzy bounced between them, but then I must have tripped as the world was suddenly revolving around me. A few bounces, and I landed right on top of a trap. Before I could react it was shut.

Just brilliant. I was stuck, and with no way out from the inside. And Izzy was out there with that angry mob! Any second now electric guitars would start up and-

I stopped. I knew from Tell your Tale that the individual inside the box is audible to the ponies outside. It was worth a try. "Izzy? Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Mrs Box!"

"Miss Box. I'm not married." I paused. "Hit the big red button."

"The big red button on the side?"

"Yes! Now hurry up before Hitch catches us!"

There was a loud clunk, and the box suddenly opened up. The blackness of the box was replaced by open vistas and blue skies. Izzy grinned. "There you go."

"Thanks," I replied as we set off.

"No biggy," Izzy replied. "I know what it's like to be stuck in one of those. It's not fun."

We sped away from Maretime Bay, with Hitch's shouting becoming increasingly incoherent in the background.

"It was nice meeting you all!" Izzy called back as we sped up the path.





We made it back to my home in a few minutes. I pushed the door open and closed it behind Izzy as we entered, before reopening it as I had forgotten to enter the house myself. I closed the door again, locked it, and shut all the blinds around the home before finally settling down, my heart still pounding in my chest.

Izzy was peering closely at all the things inside. It still felt weird referring to them as my things, as I had only been Sunny for less than 24 hours at this point. She seemed fascinated. "It's incredible to see all these things in real life. A laptop screen doesn't allow you to appreciate the level of detail the animators put into every object. It feels so real!"

I decided enough was enough. "Izzy, we need to talk."

Izzy turned around. "You remember my name! That's a great start!"

"No, seriously," I replied. "You shouldn't know who I am at this point in the movie-" I jammed my front hooves in my mouth when I realised what I had just said.

Izzy looked understanding, though. "It's OK. I'm not from here either. I'm from another world! I also know the movie REALLY well, which is handy."

My eyes widened in surprise. Another pony in the same position as me? "Which continent?"

"North America." Izzy walked up to me. "Do you Earth Ponies also engage in staaaaaaaaaring contests?"

I backed up. "Sorry, Izzy. But seriously, if we already have this knowledge, we can skip so much dialogue."

This was an important revelation. So she had once been a human, like me! This made life so much easier, I wouldn't need to explain as many things to her. "So, you know how magic has been vanishing, right?"

"Yes!" Izzy said. "It makes sense to move the plot forward and go and get the pegasus crystal next. It helps I know what's happening. For example, Hitch is about to turn up outside and use a megaphone!"

Right on cue, we heard it. "Sunny Starscout- OW! The settings on this thing are off." There was a pause. "Sunny Starscout, you are under arrest! Come out with your hooves up!"

"She'll be unable to walk with her hooves up," Sprout added.

Izzy looked to me. "I'll create a distraction. I know how to get Earth Ponies on side."

I nodded. "Best of luck."

Izzy stepped outside and I grabbed my bags and some supplies as she spoke to them. Once I was ready, I picked up something and tapped Izzy on the shoulder.

That was Izzy's cue. "Ooh! Look! Giant piano behind you!"

Hitch looked behind him, and we dashed off in the meantime. It took several minutes of solid galloping but at long last we stopped at the sign which marked the town boundary. "Hitch cannot legally arrest us here as we're outside the town borders."

I then noticed Izzy staring at me intently. "Yes? Is something wrong?"

Izzy seemed to be in random mode. "You're really pretty. Is it something you did with your mane?"

"Thanks!" I said. "I didn't do anything unusual with my mane today, but I have something to show you." I flipped open my book. "See this? There's a series of old railroad tracks we can follow to Zephyr Heights, which should speed up this journey a little bit. And we can be in and out without too much difficulty." I glanced to her. "Do you have any food on you?"

Izzy suddenly produced a microwave from nowhere. "Not only do I have food, but I have a way of cooking it! What do you have?"

"I've tossed some sandwiches into my bag for storage, but I'm not sure it's enough." I took them out.

Izzy produced a cold bag, also from nowhere, and opened it. "You should really keep those in a cool bag to keep them fresh. Have they been in a fridge?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Keeping them cool is good in a humid climate like this." I glanced to the skies. "Weather's nice for a trip, isn't it?"

"Yes indeedally!" Izzy replied as we set off. But she hadn't asked me about smelling like fish. Well, that's one awkward conversation avoided.
> So, Don't you Worry your Pretty Little Mind...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, at last our course was set. We headed off into the mysterious lands that surrounded Maretime Bay, the unexplored territory which lay between here and Zephyr Heights. Or at least as far as I knew it was unexplored. Dad had only put a big question mark on the territory between here and the Pegasus capital, suggesting to me he'd never really scouted the area. Then again, that's not surprising. Based on the film he fought his battles on the page rather than out in the wilds, even if he did do some field work every now and then. In his memory I had to push forward.

Wait a moment. Am I really losing track of self, or was I really getting that much into the roleplay, so to speak? I had to try and distance myself a bit from this. I'm not truly Sunny. I'm just a human inhabiting her body.

As we pushed onwards, the terrain shifting back towards open plains away from coastal towns, Izzy grinned. "I came this way to Maretime Bay," she explained. "It's crazy the movie creators didn't show us this bit of Equestria. It's seriously beautiful, don't ya think?"

I was enraptured with the area's beauty as well. Equestria had done pretty well for itself considering some sort of apocalypse happened between the end of Friendship is Magic and now. I pushed onwards alongside Izzy. "I know. I think they were a bit constrained by the runtime. They could have done with thirty more minutes on the film to flesh out the third act a bit more."

"I don't know," Izzy replied. "I've had devoted a bit more time to extra lore and worldbuilding."

"Oh?" I said. "You were that type of brony?"

"Yep!" Izzy replied. "Got it all stored in here. Want to know precisely which episode each bit of lore appeared in? I can tell you. I memorised it all."

That's pretty dedicated, to be honest. I could piece most of the lore together, but I could hardly be said to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the topic, especially since the writers cobbled most of it on later rather than starting with it. "That's neat," I said. "Though I assume you are aware they built Equestria as they went rather than planning it out from the start?"

"That's not too surprising," Izzy replied. "I mean, it is a show meant to teach good morals and be entertaining rather than focus heavily on lore. As I had to point out regularly to one guy on Fimfiction, My Little Pony is not Lord of the Rings!"

Fimfiction? They had a Fimfiction account? "What was your username?"

"JimmyHook19."

That name rang a bell. "Hmm," I said. "I have heard that name somewhere before. Probably from a story." I decided not to divulge the name of my account. After all, it was highly unlikely she'd have heard of it. I was hardly what you could call a prominent Fimfic user, what with only 450 followers to my name.

As we made our way onwards, the chat continued. "So, where did you live?"

"It was a small coastal town in the east somewhere. Pretty place, but somewhat lacking in action for most of the year."

"I lived in a city. Loud, noisy place. You'd have hated it!" I noticed the irony immediately. Coastal city resident who ends up as a unicorn who lives in a secluded forest. I was just a city guy, although not born and raised in south Detroit, who lived in an urban environment far from the sea and was now an Earth Pony who lived in a lighthouse.

Funny how life works sometimes.

As we continued on our way, and the conversation continued, I couldn't help but feel a bit strange around Izzy. I noticed that when I looked at her sometimes I felt strangely... warm. In my face, I mean. I mean, she was pretty and-

Hold on. Did I just call Izzy pretty? I mean, she had said the same to me before we set off, but to finally acknowledge it in my own mind felt a little odd. Whatever magic turned me into a mare seemingly didn't do anything to my sexuality, it seems.

As the sun loomed overhead, I began filtering these questions in my mind. Was I a lesbian now? Not a problem if I was, after all. I am aware the movie hints quite heavily at Izzy and Sunny being romantically involved, but I seemed to be legitimately developing feelings for her beyond simply a friendship. It was probably just a short term crush I'd get over pretty quickly.

Izzy looked over to me. "Sunny, can you hear something?" she asked.

I raised my ears and focused them closely. "I think it's... music?" I asked. "I had this earlier on where random musical numbers suddenly start up in our minds. Look like we'll be singing that duet."

Izzy nodded. "Good thing I know all the words. Even to the extended version!"

She started off with vocal responsibilities.

"Up ahead is a sky growing dark/
Where it leads is a big question mark/
And I'm scared that I'll end up a pony gone missing from pegasus-ing!"

I then joined in.

"But you're not alone, you've got a pony in your crew!"

Izzy then froze, and the music began to loop as it had for me when I'd started singing the chorus instead of the pre-chorus of 'Gonna be my Day'. "I do," I prompted her.

"Oh!" Izzy said. "I'd forgotten that bit. I do? Who?"

As we trotted along, Izzy being more focused on the song than the terrain she was in, I took over vocal responsibilities.

"I'm lookin' out for you!
When you're off track/
I got your back!
You can rely on me!
I'm lookin' out for you/
Lost in the hills/
I got the skills!"

As I sang this bit I stopped Izzy from falling off a cliff. She needs better situational awareness.

Izzy returned to singing.

"Keepin' your eye on me
I'm lookin' out for you!"

I knew she was, as her eyes were focused intensely on me. So I resumed the vocals as I was the next one to sing. Here's hoping I didn't mess up the lyrics.

"Back at home, it was Earth ponies first/
Heard it so many times, I could burst!
And I fought for a change/
But it's lonely, 'cause you know, party of uno!"

"Well, technically Sunny did, as we're both humans happening to inhabit their bodies but-" Izzy stopped when she saw my facial expression. "Sorry! Forgot about having no fourth wall breaks!" She went to singing.

"Well, if you need a friendly steed like you know who-"

I interjected.

"I think I do!"

As the music in the background began to swell to absolutely epic proportions, Izzy sang a linking segment.

"I'm lookin' out for you!"

Now came the difficult part. I was yet to attempt harmonizing with another pony, and having gained a voice in a different vocal range was proving to be an interesting challenge. To sing these vocals at the correct pitch in my old voice I would have been screeching pretty near the top of my range.

Luckily, as far as I could remember I got the harmony line, so I did my best to stick to the harmony part as well as I could remember it.

"I'm lookin' out for you! (I'm lookin' out)
When you're off track/ (When you're off track)
I've got your back/ (I've got your back)
You can rely on me!"

Seems that disembodied backing vocals are a key part of the local fauna in Equestria, as I encountered one back in Maretime Bay. They technically qualify as diagetic audio in the film, then.

"I'm lookin' out for you! (I'm lookin' out)
Lost in thе hills! (Lost in the hills)
I've got the skills! (I'vе got the skills)
Keepin' your eye on me!
I'm lookin' out for you! (I'm lookin' out)
Starting your ques/t (Starting your quest)
Makes you feel stressed! (Makes you feel stressed)
Pony, it helps knowin'!
I'm lookin' out for you! (I'm lookin' out)
You blaze the trail/ (You blaze the trail)
I'll watch your tail/ (I'll watch your tail)
Pony, let's get goin'!" (Get goin', get goin')

Izzy took over vocal responsibilities on her own for a bit.

"I'm lookin' out!"
(I'm lookin' out for you)
(I'll go where you're goin' to)
(It's all that I wanna do)
(I, I, I)

Then we sang together, in what proved to be an incredibly long note indeed.

"I'm lookin' out
(I'm lookin' out for you)
(I'll go where you're goin' to)
(It's all that I wanna do)
(I'm lookin' out)

We then turned to one another. "For you!"

It's not hard to see why so many fans saw this as a love song. Sunny and Izzy do get awfully close throughout, and it would be regarded as such if one of them was male. And Izzy had been getting awfully close throughout the trip, which made me wonder if she was going through the same thing I was. It seemed a bit rude to ask, and besides it would distract from speed running the movie, so I chose not to ask and chose to press on.

The song had certainly sped things up, it seemed, as it was now night time. The landscape was now very mountainous. Up above us glowed the bright and powerful lights of Zephyr Heights.

"They must have really good lungs to live up there," Izzy said.

"Tell me about it," I replied, as I consulted my map. "That place is a fortress. Not only is it on top of a mountain, but the only paths up there are long and steep to climb. We'll have a difficult climb ahead of us when we set off. Let's get some sleep. Pitch camp here, and we'll set off in the morning. Now if only I'd had time to pack a..."

I trailed off when I saw what Izzy had put down. "Tent. Izzy, where were you carrying a tent?"

"The same place I was carrying my microwave earlier! It's quite handy to be able to produce objects from nowhere. And I wasn't carrying a tent." She dropped another one down, fully assembled. "I brought two tents! One for each of us. I also packed three more for when we meet the others."

Well, Izzy is crazy prepared if nothing else. Hers was purple and mine was orange, so it made remembering who slept where easier. I popped inside mine after we had our evening meal and said goodnight, then drifted off to sleep.





The next morning we began our ascent to Zephyr Heights. The path was very tough going, more akin to a scramble over some cliffs than a hike. We were trotting through a canyon filled with Mist when Izzy signalled a halt.

"There's something in the canyon with us," she said.

I was pretty certain what the something was, but seeing as we'd deviated from the script a fair bit already I didn't want to jinx it. "I saw movement as well."

Suddenly, rocks began to fall behind us. "And whatever it is, it's chasing us!" Izzy called. "Run!"

We dashed for the facing wall as the thing behind us continued to erratically leap about. We soon reached the rockface and began to climb it as best we could.

"Could you give me a boost?" I called. "I'm a bit stuck!"

Izzy stuck her head under my rear hoof. "No problem!" she said. "I'm not a mountain goat either!"

After much panic and struggle, we pulled ourselves over the top, and I hauled Izzy over. We paused at the top to catch our breath. "Well, that was strenous," I said, firmly out of breath.

"At least the thing that was following us is gone," Izzy said.

Seconds later, a familiar pegasus launched herself into the air in front of us. I decided to stick to the script and scream in fright at the sight, before Zipp leaped between rocks and landed on a nearby rocky outcrop.

"An actual pegasus," I said, both in a mixture of legitimate amazement and trying to avoid attracting Zipp's suspicions.

The pegasus looked at us quizzically. "Sunny and Izzy? Huh. They're right on schedule."
> Jailhouse Rock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, what?

First Izzy, now Zipp knows us? And us is the important bit, by the way. One pony knowing information they logically shouldn't is quite one thing, but suddenly two with information they shouldn't have? What in Equestria was going on?

I glanced over to Izzy to see how she was reacting to this, only to see her still stuck in her previous position. "Err, Izzy?"

Izzy still didn't respond. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. Truth be told I would be were it not for the fact there was a pegasus in front of me. I never thought I'd ever actually get to meet AN ACTUAL PEGASUS!

Suddenly, there was clanking from round the side of a rock. Oh boy, here come Thunder and Zoom.

Zipp looked at us. "I'll see you two in the throne room. Just don't tell them you saw me." And with that she jumped off the cliff face and down into the canyon below.

"There's no way we could! We don't even know your name!" Izzy said, recreating the 'voice volume dropping' moment perfectly. Of course, we did know who she was, but that would have attracted suspicion. "She seems nice."

I shook my head. "But how does she know us?" Something seriously weird was going on around here. But I had no chance to ruminate on it further as the two guards saw us.

"How did they get here?" Thunder asked.

Zoom seemed just as annoyed as she had been in the film. "Probably climbed up. Stop overreacting."

"B- but it's a unicorn! And an earth pony!"

"They're harmless!" Zoom said. Oh. Maybe she isn't as narrow minded as other pegasi seem to be. "Earth ponies have very tiny brains."

Really? Earth ponies have tiny brains? That doesn't even make sense! The size of the brain does not regulate intelligence, as it doesn't function like any other organ! In fact, did you know that we know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about how the brain works?

Sorry, I'm getting off topic. I pulled a face in frustration. Yeah, it's not fun when racist attitudes are being thrown directly at you. Now I knew how Izzy felt back in Maretime Bay. In fact, I was so annoyed that I lost focus on what was going on. One second I was on a rocky ledge, the next I was in a lift and Izzy had a tennis ball on her horn.

There were also the guards behind me, so to try and break the ice I decided to engage in a little casual conversation. "So, what's flying like?"

Thunder just looked at me, mildly confused. "Excuse me?"

I rattled off the list of questions as quickly as I could. "What is it like to fly? What's your wingspan? What's the maximum altitude a pegasus can fly to?"

"Is it the moon?" Izzy asked.

"No, because there's no air in space," Thunder pointed out. "If we went to the moon we would die."

As I suspected. I then decided to drop in one of the others. "Do you guys wear horseshoes?"

"No, but I do collect sneakers. I can show the coll-"

"Thunder!" Zoom barked. "Do not talk to the prisoners. They could be spies."

As we looked out of the lift, Zephyr Heights emerged from the clouds. And it was absolutely beautiful. For the sake of sounding like a stuck record it is impossible to reiterate how incredible this place was. Towers of white and gold streaking effortlessly into the sky. Walls and screens buzzing with colour and light. Wide boulevards full of ponies. Cafes, streetcars, flying machines, even a railway based on the sounds from below!

I glanced over to the news screen to see Pipp's pre-recorded message for her fans playing. I wonder if she's a human as well, I thought to myself.

Suddenly, the elevator arrived at the top, and we stepped out. As per my recollection of the film, I noticed no pegasi were flying. "Izzy, nopony is flying. As per the movie."

Izzy, however, wasn't paying attention. "They have a castle!" she said suddenly. I glanced up and saw the Zephyr Heights Royal Palace in front of me. "Look at that! It's just like in Disneyland! I wonder if it gets smaller the closer to the top you get to create the illusion it's taller than it  actually is?"

"Why don't we ask?" I said, and turned to Zoom. "Does the castle ge-"

"No speaking unless spoken to!" Zoom replied. "You're coming with us."

Well, here's hoping the meeting with Queen Haven goes better than in the film.





I was wrong. That meeting couldn't have gone worse. The Queen had been just as suspicious of us as in the film, and Pipp had caused panic by streaming our existance. I was internally cringing at how badly that had gone. And they even had the gall to take my journal!

"Hey! Give that back!" I shouted at the guard who had the book. "That belongs to me!"

"Not anymore it doesn't," he said, with a cruel smile. "Finder's keepers. Besides, wouldn't want any spies revealing information to our enemies, would we?"

I turned my head back to the throne. "Your Majesty, please. That book is of great sen-"

And then the three of them just flew off! How rude!

Izzy looked at me whilst we were taken away to the cells. ""They don't seem so nice," she said. "Then again, given that this place is in a state of cold war, other races turning up uninvited would cause some concern."

I sighed. "What else can go wrong today?"





Not much, it turned out. But things were less wrong and more weird. No sooner were we in the cell then we found out we were sharing it with a third pony. Not a problem.

The weird bit was who it was in the cell with us. It was Misty! As in Brightdawn! What in Equestria was she doing here this early?

So, naturally, whilst Izzy was busy using the chair to relax, it fell to me to interact with Misty. Poor thing. She probably didn't get much social stimulus whilst in that castle. "So," I said, "what brought you here Misty?"

Misty looked at me. "Oh, you know, stuff," she said, awkwardly. Something about her behaviour was a bit odd, but I chose to let it slide. I was pretty socially awkward too. "The usual reason a unicorn ends up in a place like this."

"I see," I replied, checking the food bowl. "Fancy some food?"

"Not yet," Misty answered. "The guards prefer we eat to strictly set hours. The food here's surprisingly good though- I was expecting we'd just be fed inedible slop."

A few more minutes passed, when suddenly Zipp appeared. "You three, we need to talk."

"Your Majesticfulness!" Izzy said. "How can we verily serve thee with our unhastidious ablutions?"

That left us all speechless for a moment. Even I knew that wasn't a proper title, and before all this pony stuff began I lived in a country that still had a King and Queen! But what Zipp had to offer us was more remarkable. Not only was she formerly a human (like everypony in Equestria would be at this rate), she had my journal! I cannot express in words how happy I was to have that back. That book had meant so much to dad. In a sense it was one of the links I had left to him.

But who should bounce in to interrupt but Pipp. "Zipp!" she hissed. "What are you doing here? Mom told you to stay away!" OK. That would suggest she isn't a former human, as if she was she wouldn't be acting so paranoid.

"Right, right. Then what are you doing here?" Zipp had seemingly switched to an alternate mode, which further confirmed my suspicion Pipp wasn't a human.

"For the content!" Pipp abruptly turned and began snapping selfies. Izzy suddenly pulled me into an embrace in such a way my mouth was locked in an awkward grin.

"Princess, why is nopony flying?" I asked.

Pipp scoffed, as if the answer to the question was obvious. "It's common knowledge that only we Royals can fly," she said, bouncing up and down innefectually whilst flapping her wings. It may have just been me, but I can't recall her being this smug. "And if we could teach it to the populace of the Empire, you know we would in a wingbeat! Right, Zipp?"

And with a sudden buzz from a phone (and most certainly not something else) Pipp was off on her way, reciting what I can only assume is the pony equivalent of 'red lorry, yellow lorry'.

Zipp then offered to get us out of here, and with that we were on our own again. As the three of us settled down to a nice meal produced by Izzy, I certainly had a lot to mull over in my mind.

What had Zipp meant by leverage? And precisely how many humans were there out in Equestria?
> Can you Find it in Your Heart?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, it seems Zipp's negotiation plan worked.

We had been moved out of the prison cell, which was a nice change. The place was pretty soulless, and although a lot better than I suspected the prison would be when I arrived, having your own bed is an improvement over improvised or floor based cots.

And we certainly did have our own beds. Turns out the palace is so enormous they have entire wings with not much in them. They were leftovers from the days when the entire Royal Family lived in Zephyr Heights- not just the monarch and their immediate family, but the siblings of the monarch, as well as all the cousins and distant relations. Based on something I saw on the walls the extended family made up the bulk of the Dukes and Duchesses in Pegasus territory. Fascinating what you learn out here that the show never really touched upon. It left me wondering how many more secrets were waiting to be unearthed by explorers in this land.

Anyway, the extended family had long since moved out, and seeing as the current Royal Family residents here were just three ponies, these bits weren't used so much anymore. Household staff was housed further back in the building, but the other wings had been turned into other uses. One had been turned into an art gallery, containing the Queen's favourite paintings and photographs, and the other wing was guest space, used by visitors and guests of the Royal Family.

That apparently included us, or so it seemed.

We were each assigned our own room, and these rooms were pretty big. They seemed to go on forever! The rooms were painted nicely, with cream walls, and the usual wall decorations in gold and white. There were beds that would happily have housed two ponies, and a desk and chair. Each room also had a widescreen TV. Pretty luxurious for a guest room, I have to say. It reminded me of extremely high end hotels back in the human world that I would only have been able to stay at if I'd won the lottery. Or a competition. The two are remarkably similar. Funny how ending up as a pony allowed me to stay in a really well off place, eh?

Though, of course, this wasn't a holiday. We were still technically prisoners, just prisoners being held in very fancy cells. This was made clear to us at a banquet Queen Haven held as an act of kindness, or so she said. Personally, it felt more like she was showing off how wealthy the Pegasi are.

Seriously, who uses eating utensils made of gold? And all the medals and things the Queen and the Princesses were wearing made a lot of noise when they moved. I know Pipp and Zipp are honorary Colonels, but was the combination of medals and dresses that looked like something out of an Edwardian period drama really neccesary?

I guess that wasn't the real purpose, though. The real function was so the Queen could observe us. At least the food was good. No offense meant to Izzy, but after a day or two of microwave meals a fully cooked meal is certainly appreciated!

At least she concluded we weren't a threat, and we were given a little more freedom. We could wander around the Palace at leisure, but we couldn't leave it. We were to stay within the confines, which meant from the Parade Ground at the back to the lift at the front. Quite a big roaming ground.

I mean, her reasoning was pretty understandable. When Pipp had streamed our prescence over ZBS it had lead to panic in the streets. They didn't want a repeat of that- I mean, nopony wants mass panic.

The increased space was fine by me. Not only had pacing around a small cell gotten pretty boring after about five minutes, the palace itself was a gold mine! True, there were certain places we weren't allowed in, such as the Royal Suite or the Library. Although Izzy seemed a tad confused at some of these rules, I was more than happy to follow along with the Queen's wishes- I mean, it is her house, after all. And something in me made me think we hadn't exactly made the best first impression, so I was keen to get back into her good books.

I still had questions, of course, but those could wait as we headed to another room for cheese. I could sense Zipp wasn't having much fun, though. If her situation was anything like mine, having to suddenly adapt to very different clothing would be a pretty massive shock.





A few days of roaming the palace was a fun exercise. Much like the rooms, the palace never seemed to end, nor did it seem to have a logical floor plan. Bits and pieces seem to spiral off in lots of different directions, and there were numerous cases of doors that led nowhere or corridors that awkwardly stopped for no readily obvious reason. This merited further investigation, so I asked Zipp.

"Well," she said. "You need to remember this isn't so much one building as several buildings joined together. Previous Kings and Queens added their own bits and remodelled others to match architectural fashions of the day. The central core dates from about 900 years ago, but there are certain bits we don't really use all that much anymore."

"Such as?" I asked.

"The back bit. That was built to try and add extra living space for the Viscount of Winter Haven when he came to visit for the summer. Winter Haven gets very hot in summer, hence the name. However, the foundations weren't done properly and the back began to sink."

"Did it collapse?" I asked.

"No," Zipp answered. "But it makes moving around in there very difficult. As a result, it's rather like two houses joined to one another by a maze of corridors and stairways, with a courtyard in the middle for some reason. Each house has six floors, and because of the previously mentioned ground subsidence it gets very difficult to know which floor you're on."

"Does anypony live there now?"

"No. We mainly use it for storage. The servant's quarters are in the front bit." Zipp smiled. "And that's before we think about the maze of underground tunnels beneath this place!"

So, yes, turns out it's a rather strange building. Something in me wondered how much this lot cost to maintain, but I can imagine that the Royal Family is extremely good at giving back to the public, seeing as the populace seem to legitimately love them.

I even talked with Misty for a bit to try and figure out how she was here long before the Maretime Bay Day Festival and the Traditional Unicorn Sleepover. I suspected it was because of Opaline- and this confirmed the suspicion of many in the fanbase that she'd been doing things behind the scenes for a long time- but I wasn't able to get much concrete info.

If anything, the session itself left me with a couple of questions not for others, but for myself. Was this questioning helpful?

Don't get me wrong, it's good to be inquisitive, but at the same time I couldn't help but wonder if I was truly seeing the other ponies for who they were, or regarding them as interesting curious. I know in the movie Sunny has a bad habit of seeing the other races as curiosities rather than as individuals with lives and feelings of their own- then again, the only frame of reference she has for them is her own society's stereotypes and bigotry- so naturally I was worried I was doing the same thing. The world itself was also worth thinking about in that regard. Should I be trying to puzzle out every little detail of how G5 Equestria functioned, or should I simply enjoy myself and soak up the world as I went along? After all, I had been given an opportunity I thought I'd never get- to actually be in Equestria- and was determined not to waste it.

Phew. All that thinking does work up an appetite. I decided to head to the commissary to purchase some food before continuing with my thinking session. Zipp recommended the glazed cinnamon cakes to me. Huh. Didn't take her as a cinnamon pony.

I stopped, and the operator looked at me. "What will you be having today?" she asked, looking a bit gruff.

"One glazed cinnamon cake, please," I replied.

"That'll be 3.50," she replied.

I fished in my bag, pulled out a wallet, and placed the appropriate coins on the counter. The operator looked at me in confusion.

"What appears to be the problem?" I asked.

"Earth Pony Dollars are not legal tender in Pegasus territory," the operator replied. "You'll need to get these changed for pounds and pence."

Bother. Hadn't thought of that. Hopefully I'd be able to borrow some from Zipp and pay her back later.
> No One can Hear me Scream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't quite understand how it happened.

One moment I was in my room (or rather, the room I had been allocated in Zephyr Heights' palace), and then suddenly everything went haywire.

I was in the middle of a city somewhere in the middle of a valley, surrounded by desert. But the city itself wasn't a pleasant sight.

As I made my way forward, I noticed fires burning all around, and buildings that had been seemingly cleared out of their inhabitants. Many concrete structures were blackened and burnt out, simply reducd to hollow, collapsing shells. It was a miracle they still remained upright. Many had holes in them from seemingly being fired upon.

The skies were black, and had been the whole time. It was as I went deeper into the city that I realised why the skies were black. Huge clouds of smoke billowed upwards from the ground and into the air, blotting out what little sun there presumably had been.

I could see fires still burning in the distance. I blinked to avoid some soot, and then suddenly a crashing sound came behind me! I jumped to one side as a building collapsed into the road. That was close. I had been only a few inches from becoming pony pastrami.

I continued forward, seeing more fires. Much of the road was hard to navigate, as it was full of giant craters that made many sinkholes look like potholes in comparison. Potholes are places where roads haven't been tarmacked over properly, which I believe Maretime Bay used to have a problem with.

Everywhere was the smell of burning. It burned its way into my nostrils. Burning buildings, burning vehicles, even the smell of fuel. Everything was drenched in the smell of burning gasolene and kerosene. That would suggest this fire wasn't a natural one.

A large energy blast from up ahead caused me to stop in my tracks before an intersection. A loud stomping started up, and a huge machine walked past. It moved by on three legs, with a very strangely shaped head unit with looked kinda like a fish. A beam of energy shot from one of its mounts as it continued on its way.

It was just then I became aware of noise from up ahead. Or rather, from up above. Winged creatures dived at me, shrieking at incredible pitch. It's a miracle my eardrums didn't burst with all the noise, but I screamed and dived inside a building, heading as far away from the outside world as I could.

I stopped next to a window, breathing heavily whilst my brain tried to catch up with what I had just seen. What in Equestria was going on here? Was this some sort of apocalypse? Or some vision of the Fall of Equestria between Generations 4 and 5? I honestly hoped to Faust it wasn't any of those, because what hope was there for us now if such power was out there, running amok in Equestria at the moment?

I looked out of a window to see a group of ponies attempting to flee from more of those tripod things, only to be gunned down by a mixture of machine gun fire and more of those odd beams. The beams, of course, set more things on fire, and even led to a car exploding. You know, as they do.

Something was actively hunting the ponies. I know I'm probably doing a Captain Obvious here, but the realisation turned that initial thought on my head. These weren't colonisers. They weren't here to rule us. They were here to exterminate us.

Just then, a loud crashing started up behind me, and what sounded like concrete and steel breaking apart could be heard. I ran for the higher levels as more arms and tentacles punched through, clearly trying to grab at something. The building began to tilt over as I gained height, moving through the floors and eventually stopping at the top of the structure, where there was no other way to go. The two buildings on either side had collapsed, leaving me with no escape route but down.

But then the thing saw me. It was another of those tripods. It reared up and slammed its grabbers into the ground around me to prevent me from escaping. To my surprise, the plates on the front of the head unit shimmered, and then began to move. They slid backwards and to the sides to reveal a cockpit behind the plating, which itself was in front of some glass like substance.

These machines were being piloted. As I looked closer, I could see a figure behind the glass, sitting at the controls. He was a human, and based on what I could see was dressed in a striped suit. There was a pause, before a loud voice began speaking- presumably projected from a megaphone on the side of the machine.

"So, there you are, you little pony," the voice said. I would have responded but I was honestly too frightened to speak. What did they want with me?

I had no chance to answer before he continued. "I always hated you, Sunny. You and your stupid little friends in your stupid little Generation. Well then, it's time to do something about that. You'll pay for making me look an idiot on the internet."

I had no clue what he meant by that, but I noticed one of the tentacles begin to move. And then it lunged at me. I screamed and shut my eyes, fearing this would be the last few moments of my life.

But the impact never came. After what seemed like an eternity, I opened my eyes again. To my complete confusion, the tentacle had stopped moving. As had everything else. The fires had stopped. The flying things had stopped mid flight. The ponies down below had stopped mid run. Even the smell had gone.

The machine in front of me simply sat there static and unmoving, the pilot's face locked in a sickening grin. It was as if somepony had hit the pause button on a TV.

An intense bright light came from nearby. A figure was behind the light- I couldn't make out precisely what, but I was pretty certain it was a pony. "Sunny Starscout?" they said.

"Yes, that's me," I replied, not quite sure what was happening.

"What you have just seen are the shadows of what will be if the powers of evil get their way," the voice said again. It was pretty heavily distorted, which meant I couldn't really figure out who it was. "It is your mission to stop them. You and Seven others are the last hope this world has to avert this future and bring about peace for evermore."

Me and seven others. Obviously I knew Izzy, Pipp, Zipp, and Hitch, but that only made five. Who were the other two, then? "But how?"

"You will know when the time comes. I can tell you now you are proceeding on the correct path to the Crystals, as they are the key to stopping them." The light began to grow more intense. "My Little Ponies, I am always with you."





My eyes suddenly flew open in my room. I looked around, breathing heavily whilst sitting up. I rubbed my forehead, as if nothing else I had a headache. "What in the world was all that about?" I asked myself, before noticing the bedsheets were wet. I must have sweated several gallons based on how drenched they were.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I jumped, and then opened the door to see Izzy on the other side. "I- is there something you want?"

Izzy looked concerned. "I sensed your sparkle was pretty dark and wanted to see if you were OK."

I nodded, and beckoned her in. "Lock the door, please."

After a few moments, we were settled. "I'm guessing you're not OK."

What could I tell her about the dream? I was worried she'd think I was insane! "I- I had a bad dream."

Izzy nodded. "How bad? The 'I forgot my things for school' type of bad, or worse?"

"Worse," I said. I then described what I'd seen to her. "Izzy, i- it was horrible! I don't know if it's just my imagination playing up or whether watching Invasion of the Tripods in the dark with Zipp was a bad idea, b- but I can remember every detail! What sort of dream does that?"

Luckily, my fears about being thought insane were unfounded. Izzy trotted over and gave me a hug, her eyes understanding and her face looking concerned. What she said certainly reassured me. It's good to have friends who'll always have your back.

Izzy then made an offer. "I can give you some sleep tea if that would help you sleep."

I checked under my eyes to discover there were some bags underneath them. I really hadn't been sleeping that well. "Hey, it's better than nothing. I'd like to try some if that's possible."

Luckily, it worked. What followed was one of the best night's sleep I'd had in a very long time.
> Pulling the Puzzle Apart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A bit of time had passed since that rather strange experience, and I was certainly feeling a little bit better in myself. Izzy's statement that dreams can't hurt us was certainly reassuring, but nontheless I was a little wary. Why would such a random assortment of images and senses, as nightmares were supposed to be, be so vivid and have a seemingly coherent plotline? Nightmares aren't exactly known for having logical and coherent storylines, instead usually being a nonsensical jumble of unpleasant and frightening imagery that reflect the victim's mental state. This left me more than a bit confused, and also kinda worried. What would happen if things got worse?

It was during one of those days where I struck up conversation with Zipp. Well, truth be told she found me first, which is hardly surprising. She knows these corridors better than the back of her hoof!

She trotted up to me. "Hey, Sunny!" she said. "Doing anything at the moment?"

I produced my father's journal to hide the fact I hadn't been doing anything. "Just, err, checking my dad's notes on, erm, stuff! You know, the usual!"

"Right," Zipp replied. She had probably seen right through the bluff, but had (for some reason) decided to humour me nontheless. "Got some really good news for you."

"Really?" I said.

"Yup. Tonight's the night of the Royal Celebration, as you probably know, and that is a big occasion. But I thought we should have our own celebration as well."

"Such as?" I asked.

"I ordered in McWings and some drinks," Zipp replied. "I'm part of their loyalty program, so I get money off on bulk orders."

"Zipp, how much food did you order?" I asked, as we began to set off down the corridors.

"Just three meals," she replied. "Two or more is counted as a bulk order under the ordering system. Sheesh, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition."

Suddenly, a pony in a red hat leaped around the corner. "NOPONY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!" they said, before suddenly vanishing.

I was confused. If that was a Monty Python reference, something seriously strange was going on. If not, that suggested there was a pony version of the legendary comedy troupe. Which is entirely plausible.

Once all that was over, I resumed the conversation as if nothing had happened. "So, any particular reason you ordered food for us? And what spiciness did you go for? McWings is chicken, right?"

Zipp looked at me quizzically. "Do I need a reason to do nice things for my friends?"

Oh. I hadn't considered that. Silly me.

But before I could continue or reply to anything being said Zipp resumed speaking. "I kept the spice level to very low for you two. Personally I prefer medium, but that can be quite hot to those not used to it. And yes, it's chicken. Most widely consumed meat in Pegasus territory, incidentally."

I already knew G5 ponies were omnivores from previous events in my adventure, but to hear equines talk so casually about meat consumption, given that back in the human world ponies are herbivores, was still slightly weird. Zipp then switched topics again.

"You already know about the crystals, right?"

"Well, yes," I said. "Funnily enough, I did want to discuss that with you, Zipp."

"Fire away."

"What precisely are you planning for us, given we know what the story is and all that?"

Zipp grinned. "Simple. We know where the crystals already are, which will dramatically speed up getting them back together. No guessing where they are unlike the original ponies here!"

It was a good thing the guard had taken my book and not my bag. The Earth Pony crystal was still in that, but luckily the bag was safely locked in my room, where nopony could steal it. I, of course, hadn't told Zipp about this, of course, but I would do in due course. "That is true. Seriously, how did nopony realise there was supposed to be something inbetween the Unicorn and Pegasus crystals?"

"Plot convenience?" Zipp suggested. "I mean, Sunny returning home and finding the crystal there does give a reason for the gang to go to Maretime Bay and give the movie a circular narrative. That's where a movie ends in the same location where it began."

"I'm familiar with plot structures," I answered gently. "I was quite the writer back in the human world."

"Yeah, Izzy mentioned this thing called FimFiction a few times," Zipp replied. "I wasn't really a writer. I just tended to lurk in the comments sections!"

That got a laugh out of me. I mean, who hasn't done that?





Food was in one of the sitting rooms, and Izzy joined us a few seconds later. Whilst I tried some of the chicken (seriously good. I hope McWings open a branch in Maretime Bay), Zipp fiddled with the radio, switching between numerous channels to try and find something to listen to.

"So many things and everything until our time is do-"

"No!" Zipp said. "I hate this one." She switched settings.

"'Cause I love to make you smile, smi-"

"How is this on the radio?" Izzy asked. "I thought Pinkie Pie died centuries ago!"

"Beats me," Zipp answered. "Then again, it's possible the melody survived. Remember how in Winter Wishday each Tribe has different words sung to the same melody? Possibly the same thing here." She switched settings once again.

"So get up, get down/
If you're gonna come around/
We can wo-"

"And that's from Equestria Girls," Izzy commented. "How odd."

How odd was an understatement. If this was Generation 5, how was music from the previous Generation playing over the radio? And not only that, songs that were particularly popular with the fanbase!

That last one particularly jumped out at me, as I had indirectly become a brony through the Cafeteria Song (it being one of the first songs from Generation 4 I listened to). In a sense, it gave me a direct connection to my own past.

I must have zoned out for a bit, as I suddenly heard Zipp speaking to me. "Hey, Sunny. What's up? You haven't said anything the entire time."

I then disclosed my nightmare to them. Whilst Zipp wasn't hugely sympathetic at first, Izzy was able to get her to see things my way. It was after this that Zipp had an idea.

"When you two are finished, I'll take you two down to see something  pretty remarkable. But only when you two are ready, of course."

I nodded. "Sounds good," I replied, albeit with food coming flying out of my mouth as I was trying to talk and eat at the same time.

Just as suddenly as that, Misty suddenly popped in through the door, with bits of pizza in her mane. Yeah, she was a pretty messy eater back then."Can I come too?" she asked.





Even though I knew what Zipp's workshop, or rather the old cable station, looked like, seeing it in pony was still incredible. The vaulting ceiling, the posters on the walls, and the enormous window with the hole in it were incredible feats of engineering.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" Zipp said, as she gave us the guided tour. "Seems the previous Zipp found the place and turned it into her personal  workshop. It was probably some sort of cable station from the days when  we were all united and still travelled about. But seeing you guys have seen the film you probably already know that." She backed up to a board and flipped it over. "Which is why I want to speak to you two. I've got a plan so crazy it might just work."

Izzy grinned. "And what's that? I love it when a good plan comes together!"

I was about to suggest to Izzy to lay off on the meta humour for a bit, but Zipp interrupted before I could. "I've got a plan to reunite the crystals early and skip a considerable  chunk of the story. You guys already know where the Pegasus Crystal is,  so we just need the Earth Pony and Unicorn ones."

Luckily, I had retrieved my bag in the meantime. "Funny you should mention those, as I just happen to have the Earth Pony crystal on me."

"When did you get that?" Izzy asked.

"Removed it from the bottom of my lantern before I left for CanterLogic," I replied.

"Perfect!" Zipp said. "Izzy, do you have the Unicorn Crystal?"

"No," Izzy answered. "But I do have a tin of baked beans!"

Zipp  sighed. "It's OK. I doubt Alphabittle would let anypony wander off with it anyway. OK, so that speeds things up a little. This just means we need to get the Pegasus Crystal and we'll be good to go."

"Will that be as hard as in the movie or harder?" Izzy asked.

"Harder," Zipp said. "The crystal, as you know, is part of mom's crown, and  there's no guarantee she's one of us, if you know what I mean. We had a  break in a little while back, courtesy of- wait a second, where did Misty go?"
> You Never Know what's Round the Bend...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I spotted her soon enough. Or rather I saw her horn poking out from behind a pillar. She was quite like Fluttershy in that sense- she did do a lot of hiding. What seemed stranger was that she seemed to be speaking. To nopony in particular. What also seemed even odder was that there was some sort of gas near her, which was obscuring proceedings somewhat. I know, I just used the word 'seemed' an awful lot, but that was how it looked to me. Following what was happening over there was pretty difficult. Could she be talking to a certain somepony?

I dismissed that thought pretty fast. There's no magic right now, so magical objects won't be working. This, in turn, means that stuff like the compact seen in Make your Mark or Misty's locket won't work. Which in turn means Opaline will have no power of any description.

That was a weight off my shoulders. We've got quite enough to deal with at the moment without a power crazed alicorn causing chaos behind the scenes.

"Hey! Misty! Over here!" I called. Hopefully she was just talking to herself. I mean, it seems ponies have a habit of doing that anyway.

There was a brief pause, before Misty dashed back over. "Sorry guys! I got distracted! I have a very short atten- ooh! Shiny!"

So she had just been looking at stuff. That was lucky.

Zipp, however, seemed mildly annoyed. "Careful with that stuff, Misty," she said. "I don't know what half of it does yet. The less playing around with old things we can do the better."

Misty nodded, clearly having gotten the message. Being with her in person- or pony, I guess- certainly helped me appreciate why she was so popular with the fans. She's really sweet, if a bit clumsy.

Zipp then continued her briefing. "Anyway, we had a break the day you two arrived, and this meant that security has been beefed up dramatically. Not just in more guards, but the crown? She-"

"Never takes it off," we all said at once. I internally chortled at the mental image of something like that not being removed, even for bathing or swimming. They must sell lots of oddly shapped swimming caps around here, if there's a monarch who never removes a crown. Besides, wouldn't the metal go rusty in the water? Most crowns of that type are usually bronze or steel coated in gold to reduce weight and cost.

Sorry, I can see I'm boring you again. I'll get back to the story.

Luckily, Zipp had a plan. And seeing as we've all seen the film it was a plan we were familiar with. "So, we need a diversion. Izzy, I need you to create a replica crown that at a glance can pass for the real thing. I can get you the supplies you need if you tell me what they are."

Izzy nodded, and rubbed her hooves together. Somehow without falling over. I must ask her how she's able to do that. "I'll need a box of macaroni, a tube of glue, fourteen gooey bunnies, and three jelly beans. And glitter. Lots of glitter."

Well, that's oddly specific. Zipp cut in before I could respond, however. "I'll secure you those then get them to you. You make the crown, then we head for the palace. I'll distract the reporters and guards so you two can access a side tunnel on the palace, usually only used for moving food supplies. That'll get you two backstage so you can swap the crowns. We'll rednezvous outside the palace and then head for Bridlewood. Any questions?"

I was about to ask, but Misty got their first. "What can I do?"

"You can keep guard," Zipp said. "Now let's get to work."





After that, Zipp left to go shopping, as she had an awful lot of stuff to get. And it was a pretty random assortment of items, to be honest with you. A box of macaroni, a tube of glue, fourteen gooey bunnies, and three jelly beans. And glitter? Assuming there's even one store that stocks all of those things (as far as I knew Zephyr Heights didn't have any supermarkets, and I doubted that even department stores stocked all of those things), it'd look pretty suspicious for Zipp to be buying such a random assortment of stuff from one shop. Perhaps she would order it in to lots of different places via click and collect? That was certainly an option. Pipp had said that Zipp's habit of using click and collect annoyed her. Turns out someponies actually do enjoy browsing shops, which I guess is easy when you have all your meals provided for you.

This left us doing our other tasks, which were vital to ensuring the success of this plan and the future of the world. I was sat in the room I was using, with an easel set up on the side of the room. I had attached a set of floor plans to this and was working through them to try and find a route. "Interesting," I said to myself. I thought I had found something interesting on my looks, and that it would allow us to get in much more easily than many other routes that were available inside the palace.

I was starting to mark a route in pen and find a route in when suddenly the door knocked. I went over and opened it.

Izzy was on the other side. "How's it going, Sunny?" she asked, as she stepped in.

"Pretty well," I replied. "How's the crown coming along?"

Izzy held up her object. "The piece de resistance! That means super amazing."

The crown she had made would certainly have fooled me. Despite being made out of arts and crafts stuff, it captured the crown pretty well. The bulk was made of macaroni imitating metal, and Izzy had used glue tubes to recreate the crystal part. There were even some jelly beans that looked like crystals from a distance. The only thing I couldn't figure out was why glitter was needed. Nontheless, she's an incredibly skilled crafter.

"That looks great, Izzy!" I said. "How long did it take you to make?"

"About an hour or so," she replied. "Zipp and Misty kept a lookout whilst I made it. How's your plan going?"

I showed her my proposed route. "This access tunnel will let us bypass the guards and access the backstage area. We can hide there until the show begins, and then swap the crowns over without anypony noticing."

"There's one slight problem with your plan to enter the palace," Izzy pointed out.

"Namely?"

"We're already in the palace, silly!"

I glanced to the board, then to her, and back to the board. "Well, that is a bit of a drawback. I'd somehow overlooked that."

"Besides, Zipp's access tunnel is inside the palace perimeter, so we won't need to leave the top level. Pretty smart, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied. "Here's hoping nothing goes wrong. I have no reason to think it will, but it never hurts to be prepared. Just not scared. That's rarely a good thing to be."





Night fell, and the front of the palace was buzzing with activity. Zipp was making her entrance to the structure, strutting down the red carpet and distracting the reporters, who were asking silly questions. Seriously, who cares what shampoo she uses? And why are you asking her where the bathroom is?

Whilst this was going on, Izzy passed me some night vision goggles to allow me to navigate in the dark. Based on the plans this tunnel and underground area was very dimly lit. I switched on my radio. "Misty, you there?"

"Receiving you loud and clear, over?"

"What's the condition of the tunnel, over?"

"Seems good to go. Plenty of space, over?"

"Excellent. Make sure to keep watch for guards."

"Understood. Over and out!"

I shook my head. "She wasn't paying attention when we were doing radio protocal, was she?"

"In fairness, they do say that in the movies."

"Well the movies are wrong." I indicated forward as a chopper passed overhead. "Let's get in there."

We made our way through the tunnel and through the dark storage rooms, where those night vision goggles certainly came in handy. At the other end of the room was an elevator, which we took up to the top level. This, quite conveniently, dropped us off behind the thrones, where of course Queen Haven and Zipp would be sitting. In different thrones, of course.

Izzy looked to me and took the fake crown out of a bag. "I've got the crown ready to go," she said, popping it on one of my hooves. "You'll need to stand on top of me to drop it into position, but be quick. I don't know how long I'll be able to stay in place before I start sliding about."

"Fine by me," I said. "Well, looks like there's no going back. I can only hope this plan works."

"If it does, the results will be so worth it," Izzy replied. "Magic being back early!"

The lights began to drop as we heard winding gear engaging overhead. No going back now...
> Heistakes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I'd first watched My Little Pony: a New Generation, I viewed it using a home cinema setup with surround sound and enjoyed listening to some seriously good sound. The visuals were also great on a high quality TV running at 1080p, so it felt like I was actually there with the characters.

The irony, of course, was I actually was there, alongside numerous other humans who had been turned into ponies. We live in a truly tiny world, but even hidden behind the throne and just listening, it was absolutely incredible to hear Pipp singing 'Glowin' Up' for real!

I was so caught up in the moment I temporarily forgot we had a heist to do, but then I spotted the fake crown in Izzy's possession again, so she clearly intended for us to go ahead with this plan. She dropped her head, and I hopped on her back and balanced some of my weight on her head. Unfortunately, standing on top of another pony with only hooves was tough, and I slipped about a bit whilst trying to position myself quickly. I didn't want Izzy to collapse under my weight, though. I glanced over. Or down, I guess. "ould you stop shifting about so much?" I asked.

Izzy grunted as she tried to keep me in position. "It's kinda hard to focus on where I'm moving when you're standing on my head!"

She did have a point, so I had to get to work. I was right behind the Queen's head, and was perfectly positioned to take the crown. I reached forward, and grabbed it with one of my hooves, moving it back to the storage area backstage and moving the fake forward. I dropped it into place and then glanced over to Zipp. I smiled and nodded at her, and she returned the favour before returning to the 'smiling pleasently' facade. No doubt the Queen had informed her to remember to smile.

But we had what we needed. I hopped down from Izzy's back and stuck the real crown in my bag. "Swapped!" I said. "Queen Haven didn't even notice a thing."

Izzy nodded excitedly. She's adorable when she does that. "Just like in the movie!" she grinned, as we got moving. "Now let's go! Did Zipp indicate to you where to go?"

I consulted my memory of the plan that Zipp and I had cooked up for our escape from the palace. "Apparently there was a side alley she'd found that would hide our position." I found my way over to the exit door and checked about before pushing the button to open it.

"Hey honey. Sorry I'm running a bit late, but I had to fill in for a colleague at the palace. I'll try to be home as so-"

I slammed the door shut. There was a guard on the other side. True, he was on his phone, speaking to his significant other, but his lack of awareness of us only worked if we remained behind him. And behind the door by logical extension. Which wouldn't work for an attempted escape. I glanced to Izzy. "We need to find another exit."

"Uh, Sunny? We've got another problem!"

I wheeled around, and there was Cloudpuff! I'd forgotten about him! He looked pretty cross, and growled aggressively at us. So we bailed for another door as fast as we could, trying to avoid making too much noise. Why is it that the smallest dogs are the most aggressive?

I slammed into a door and opened it. My heart sank when I saw who was on the other side. "Oh no..."

Hitch was standing there, shooting me a death glare. "Sunny Starscout, Izzy Moonbow, you are under arre-"

I slammed the door again, and looked back to Izzy. "I'd forgotten about Hitch!"

The growling was then heard again, as Cloudpuff went into attack mode. He jumped onto my bag and pulled the crown out and then ran off.

"No!" I said. "We have to get it back!"

Before any of us could say anything else the door behind me opened, and I jumped forward to avoid Hitch. "You two stop right there."

That would have been game over, where it not for Pipp flying into view at that exact moment. "Quick! Run whilst Hitch is distracted!" Izzy shouted, and so we did.

I can only assume we got separated whilst we were running around the throne room, as at one point Izzy was suddenly no longer at my side. I was all alone, and Hitch it seemed had broken from his 'distracted by the sexy' moment and was now following me at speed. I wandered to myself how he kept up, but then I reminded myself he was a policeman, and probably had quite the tough fitness regime to back him up.

As I ran along, my radio buzzed into life. "Guys, we got a problem."

It was Zipp. "Care to name which one?" I asked.

"There's more than one?"

"I'm currently being chased by a sheriff and trying to dodge a crazed dog at the same time," I panted. "What's the other problem?"

"The crown you swapped for your fake? It's also a fake. Mom anticipated the theft and wore a reproduction tonight. We've swapped a fake for a fake!"

Just our luck. So where in Equestria was the real one? "Well, where's the real one?"

Zipp stopped replying, so I assumed she was busy. I slid under a table to try and slow Hitch down, but he simply slid under it as well. Luckily, a group of pegasi blocked the path and forced him to stop temporarily. I stopped at the side of the chamber and then saw Zipp trot over to me.

"Got the crown Izzy found!" she said, but as she looked closely at it her face fell. "Oh no..."

"What's the problem?" I asked, looking at her in surprise.

"Sunny, it's another fake. I'm not sure how this happened, but there are two fakes in circulation on top of the fake we made earlier today!"

This was getting farcical. "Did somepony anticipate our theft?"

Zipp nodded her head. "Sure looks that way. I'll go look for the real one."

"Good idea," I said. "I'll try and- oh shit, here he comes! RUN!"

Hitch barrelled out of the crowd once again, and I hit the skates, so to speak. I had them on me, just not enough time or space to put them on. I looked over to Izzy. "This way!"

"Any news?" Izzy asked.

"Turns out the crown you found and the one Cloudpuff took from us were both fakes!" I replied. "Looks like somepony anticipated this theft!"

"Bummer," Izzy said, as we slid into another room. One filled with computer screens and complex technical equipment.

This was the cable control room, based on the displays and gizmos sitting about. The sole occupant, a technician, looked at us and screamed. "AHHH! IT'S THE PRISONERS! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Izzy looked at me. "I don't think he likes us very much."

"You think?" I replied, the sarcasm in my voice more than evident. "It's OK, we're not going to hurt you," I said to the technician.

"That's what an earth pony would say, isn't it?" he answered, before running off at speed. We ran round and round in a circle after him, trying not to get dizzy in the process. Why is everypony's default response to meeting us to run off?

"It's OK!" Izzy said. "We're not gonna fry your brain or anything!"

The technician didn't seem convincd as he stopped with his back to the console. "PLEASE SPARE ME! I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS!"

In his panic he knocked a button, which caused the sound and light equipment to start going wrong. The audio track skipped repeatedly, and the lights were flashing so quickly it could have given anypony epilepsy.

The cameras then swung onto Hitch, for some reason, who was caught in the moment. He began to sing nonsense words, whilst the second camera showed an utterly baffled Pipp.

My attention was brought back when Izzy shouted. "NO! DON'T MOVE THAT LEVER!"

But it was too late, and the technician knocked a lever marked MANUAL OVERRIDE. This seemingly disabled the automatic movement patterns for the cables that had been programmed in, as within seconds Pipp was being pulled around backwards at incredible speed, the sound system broadcasting her screams to anypony listening.

I looked on the console for a sound off button, as I wanted to reduce her humiliation a bit, but I couldn't see one. Izzy then spoke. "We need to go, now, before this place goes wild!"

"I'm not arguing with you on that one!" I replied, and we left the room. Before we left, I looked back to see a scene of violence breaking out. Ponies were taking pictures of a suspended Pipp, and there was a lot of shouting.

We briefly made eye contact, and Pipp mouthed a single word to me.

Why?
> The Nightmare's Just Begun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We stopped in the rally point after a mane raising escape that I'd rather not talk about. I looked around, puffing and panting for air. Even if Sunny was in good physical health, running would eventually do a number on you. What in the world had happened, though? I don't remember there being any fake crowns in the film!

Izzy's words pulled me out of my thoughts. "I think we lost them!"

The next voice completely shattered those hopes. "No you didn't." Hitch stepped forward, the first time I'd seen him in full since Maretime Bay, which felt like millions of years ago now.

"Hitch?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking you back to Maretime Bay. You'd best come quietly too, Izzy."

And charge us with what, exactly? Running around a town isn't a crime last I checked. And if he tried to pull the resisting arrest nonsense I could always point out he didn't have a warrant to arrest me. At least as far as I knew. I'm pretty certain you can't arrest a pony without a warrant.

"What happens if I come loudly?" Izzy asked, breaking the tension with a joke. Smooth, Izzy. Smooth.

Hitch certainly didn't find it funny. "You know what I mean. We're stuck in the middle of a city which seems to  be at war and actively hates us. We're in a right mess."

I turned to Hitch to attempt some diplomacy. "Please, you have to let us go. What we have is vitally important to the future of the world!"

I suspected he would just think me insane, but before I had any chance to clarify anythin Misty suddenly appeared atop a dumpster. "I've... got... the... crown!"

"Where's Zipp?" Izzy asked.

"She stayed back to stop the guards from capturing me," Misty replied. "The army's hunting the princesses."

And right on cue, who should appear but Pipp Petals. Her appearance was ragged. Her mane was a mess. Her coat was absolutely covered in grime and dirt. Her coronet was scuffed. And she was shooting me a death glare.

She stopped in front of us and produced the fake crown that Izzy had made, not noticing (or possibly not caring). "Which one of you is going to explain to me why that damn piece of metal is so important you had to ruin my whole show over it!?" I tried to extend a hoof to her, but she slapped my foreleg away and turned her phone around, which was playing news footage of the aftermath of the fiasco. "The army's arrested her! I saw them beating her before I ran!"

This was concerning. Had our plan not quite worked? "Wait, Zipp didn't tell Pipp the plan?"

"Was she meant to?" Misty asked.

Izzy nodded. "Yes. And that means we're one princess down. But at least we have one! Her mom's the queen. The one they arrested."

Given that Pipp was purple in the face after saying that (quite an impressive achievement given her coat colour), Izzy's remark probably wasn't all that helpful.

"If Pipp's mom is the queen, that makes her a princess," Hitch said, his eyes agape in surprise as if this was somehow a big surprise and not blidingly obvious.

"No shit Sherlock!" Pipp snapped back. Wait. That use of that phrase. Is Sherlock Holmes a concept here? I had briefly chatted with Pipp about her reading tastes and had discovered she mostly read fantasy novels (I'm currently on Book Two of the Chronicles of Chevalia series, which they've recently started publishing in the UEPS. Well worth a read in my opinion, even if some of the stereotypes are bit outdated).

Our discussion was interrupted by Pipp's phone switching to the news channel. I'll give you the short version; the army had overthrown the monarch and imposed a dictatorship on the city. The Queen was made to 'confess' to 'crimes' (no doubt a pony had a gun trained on her the entire time), but not before leaving us a cryptic message. "Pipp! Run! Save yourself!"

I had learned about coups in the previous world, but had never imagined I'd actually be walking through one myself. Pipp, understandably, wanted to go back. "We have to go back! We can't just leave mom and Zipp with those pigs! Who knows what they'll do to them!"

"We can't!" I said.

"And why is that?" Pipp snapped, getting uncomfortably close to my face. 

I calmly pushed her back and continued speaking. "We can bring back magic, but we need the crystal. We get magic back, we save your folks. Deal?"

"Uh, guys?" Misty said. "Soldiers over there! We can't go back!"

She was right. The army had set up another roadblock, and one of their number was barking orders at civilians. No way we could go that way. Unless we fancied being dead or in prison. As you can probably guess, we didn't go that way, or else how would I be telling you the story?

"Fine! I know a way out. Follow me."

We began to follow Pipp out of the city, and I'll admit this always confused me. If she rarely left the palace and enjoyed the lifestyle her position gave her, how did she know of a route out from a dark, poorly lit alley in the middle of nowhere?

At least we weren't sleeping in a dumpster tonight. I looked behind me at the chaos of lights and shouting, with some gunfire.

What had I done?





I suddenly woke up in a grassy field, the perimeter of which was aflame. The flames were drawing closer, and I looked around in confusion. "Huh? What's going on?"

"The fires burn too hot for you?" said a voice. "Well, too bad. Get used to it. After all, you brought this upon yourself."

I began to stumble forward, away from the flames, when the fire seemed to shift and move. I shook my head. Was it forming a... shape?

Wait. It was... dad? "You foalish child. You really think this is what I wanted? The destruction of the world? A thief of a filly?" Before I could reply he faded into nothingness.

I stumbled on, confused and disoriented. Explosions ravaged a city in the distance as flames continued to dance across the sky.

Suddenly, the shapes coalesced into a new form. The flames now formed Zipp. "You left me out to dry, Sunny!" she yelled. "How could you? HOW COULD YOU?!"

There was suddenly a gunshot, and her form vanished once more. This was getting seriously creepy.

The flames only continued to build the more progress I made. "But this is what you get for messing with things you do not understand," the mysterious voice said again. "The magic was not yours to give, and this is the consequence.

The flames were reshaped, this time into Izzy. She looked terrified. "SUNNY! HELP ME!" Suddenly, her chest exploded in light and sparks before her form vanished.

"There's one you failed to save. One who was just following orders."

I kept on going, trying to make sense of what I was seeing around me. The light was gradually becoming more and more intense.

The flames once again formed into a shape, this time forming a screen of sorts. A battle raged on it, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies butchering each other in systematic militarised slaughter.

"None of this would have happened if you just stopped," the voice said again, now mocking me. "But you were so desperate to be something you're not... a hero. You leave chaos and destruction wherever you go. Ponies suffer because of your actions."

A voice behind me caught my attention, and I wheeled around to see a fiery Hitch. "You couldn't leave the past alone, could you?" he shouted.

Pipp appeared next to him. "I HATE YOU, SUNNY! YOU CAN BURN IN TARTARUS FOR ALL I CARE!"

I stepped back in shock, before the scene now behind me changed. The flames now showed heavy bombing, of an entire city being pounded into the dust.

"You wanted to unify them?" said the strange voice. "How ironic. You only achieved the opposite. There were 20 million ponies in Equestria before you came here. Thanks to you, there'll all gone."

I suddenly saw Maretime Bay in the distance, and a huge explosion tore the city apart, with the distinctive mushroom cloud of a nuclear weapon forming.

I tried to back away, before turning and screaming. An enormous alicorn made of fire had appeared behind me, and it looked down, its white eyes shifting and glowing as I looked at it. "I once thought I only had to protect Equestria from Opaline," it said, the voice distorted and cold. "Now I can see I only have to protect it from you." Its horn charged up and started to glow. "This is for all your victims!"

I screamed once again. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

I swung my hoof in a futile attempt to protect myself, and was suddenly jolted back awake. I looked around and saw Izzy clutching her muzzle in pain. My heart sank. "Wha- Izzy, I'm so sorry!"

"I'll be fine," she said. "Just a little nosebleed. But what's going on?"

I shuddered as I recalled the imagery. "It's the nightmares again. They're getting worse! And-"

Izzy hugged me as best I could. "Sunny, this is serious. I won't take no for an answer, because-"

"Please don't leave me."
> His Dark Creation has Been Revealed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning arrived, and after breakfast we gathered to discuss plans and the next day's actions. We had a large map to look at, and this would help us with planning our route for the rest of the journey.

Hitch noticed I wasn't saying a huge amount. "Everything OK, Sunny?"

I looked up at him, partly so he could see the bags under my eyes. "I haven't been sleeping well."

"Oh, what a tragedy," Pipp said, her voice positively sarcarstic in its tone.

"Really, Pipp?" Izzy asked. "Go on, Sunny. Tell us what happened."

"Well," I replied, "they seem to be warnings of danger. Of something we need to prevent, or at the very least minimise. The scenes I've seen have been filled with destruction and apocalyptic imagery- I fear some sort of apocalypse is coming, one that only we can prevent."

There were a few moments of silence, and then Hitch spoke. "Anything more specific?"

"I'd prefer not to recall the specific visions," I replied, as I looked down into the fire below us. "But there were a lot of machines, and disasters, and other similar displays of destruction. I think somepony plans to wage war on ponykind to destroy it."

"The General?" Misty suggested. "But what would he get from destroying the world?"

"The guy lost his marbles a long time ago," Pipp said dispassionately.

Wait, Lost his Marbles? That sounds like a very un Pipp thing to say. Just who was she? Could she be another human after all?

Hitch glanced over, a caring smile on his face. "I know I may have been harsh on you before. But now we have a real chance to fix things and put the world back on track. I think I know which way we're going. We can cut across this field and make our way back to Bridlewood at speed, and then once the crystals are in place we can go home."

With that, the last of the food was eaten, and our campsite was slowly packed up and put into carrying objects that Izzy concealed in her strange invisible storage space she carried with her. I still had no clue how it worked. That mare sure was a mystery, a mystery I was still figuring out to myself. Along with other things.

We made our way along a rock ledge and began to descend into a rolling meadow. The scenery was pretty lovely, but my mind was currently focused on Pipp. She'd hardly said anything apart from snarky remarks the entire morning, and this concerned me greatly. We trudged along through the landscape, Hitch consulting a map every now and then as we made our way towards our destination a few hundred miles away.

The going was pretty easy for most of us. But Izzy seemingly kept wandering off on tangents. Seems she hasn't completely lost her cloudcookoolander nature completely. And why should she? It's part of what makes her who she is.

My attention was suddenly attracted to a scream of frustration from nearby. "AARGH! BESTIE! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PACK IN ON ME NOW?!"

I looked over and saw Pipp, who seemed to be in the middle of a temper tantrum. Although normally quite friendly, I did get the impression at points she was pretty spoiled. "I HATE THIS STUPID PLACE!"

Hearing this, I dashed over to her. "Hey, are you OK?"

"What do you think?" Pipp snapped, looking at me. "Does my face look OK to you? Does anything look OK to you?"

"There's no need to be-"

"No, Sunny, you've done quite enough talking for today, so how about trying something you find hard- listening?" Pipp's sudden outburst had me stunned into silence, and I simply stared, wide eyed, as Pipp went on with her rant.

"Absolutely everything has gone wrong! My mane and coat have mud in them, my hooves are scuffed from all this damned walking, and we're living like primitives! I had to relieve myself in a bush earlier today! Do you have any idea how dirty that felt?"

I blinked. Truth be told I'd never had an issue answering the call of nature behind a bush.

"Not only that, the stunt you pulled? You left me hanging- literally! In that spotlight! I know what type of friend leaves somepony out to dry like that! A REALLY SHITTY ONE!"

I jumped back in surprise. The last thing I'd expected to ever hear was Pipp swearing.

"I had to watch them beating mom up as I escaped! Now mom and Zipp are probably dead or in a crummy jail cell with only cheddar and bread to eat... and it's all your fault. So I think at the very least you need to say sorry to me, instead of being all high and mighty and constantly throwing your problems our way."

My heart sank, and I dropped my head. "P- Pipp," I stammered, trying to hold my emotions back. "I know this'll sound hollow, but I truly am sorry for the mess I've caused. I've been a terrible friend, and I've only made things worse. But I promise that I'll make things up to you, no matter what happens. We'll fix this world, save your family, and get things back on track- just not neccesarily in that order."

The pain of the nightmare and the accusations came flooding back.

"You really think this is what I wanted? The destruction of the world? A thief of a filly?"

"You left me out to dry, Sunny! How could you? HOW COULD YOU?!"

"You couldn't leave the past alone, could you?"

"I HATE YOU, SUNNY! YOU CAN BURN IN TARTARUS FOR ALL I CARE!"

And what made it hardest of all was that they were right. It was all true. I'd been so focused on living the life of a character I liked I'd lost sight of what my actions were doing to others.

It was this realisation that caused the dam to break, so to speak, and I did something I haven't done in years.

Cry.

I don't remember a lot of what happened next, but what I do recall is Pipp pulling me into a hug and trying to comfort me. I don't recall exactly what she said, but I know it was enough to get me back on my hooves so to speak, and that way we could continue on our journey.

And that was before we got confirmation that Pipp also was a human, or former human. Talk about a very small world. But if she'd originally been from a not great background and had been, by force of fate, been propelled into luxury, that would explain her reluctance to leave it behind.





That night we sat around another campfire perched on a ledge. We sat and chatted with each other, mostly. Misty seemed to be having quite the lively chat with Pipp about manestyling, and Hitch was sitting over by himself. With some encouragement, he made his way back over to us and sat down. I suspect the s'mores convinced him to come and sit with us. Who can resist a good s'more, after all?

I took a look at the map. "Well, not far to go now," I said. "Next stop, Bridlewood. We'll put the three crystals together, bring magic back, and hopefully fix the world while we're at it."

Misty spoke up. "You do remember that in the movie that putting the crystals together at that point didn't work?"

"I have seen the film, remember?" I replied. "But they only had two of them. All three might do the trick." But it was then I noticed Izzy looking down into the fire. She looked quite upset, so I decided to check everything was OK, hoping it would go better than with Pipp. "What's wrong, Izzy?"

Izzy looked up at me. "Something Hitch said to me has got me thinking. He said the sooner we get this over we can go home. But I don't think I want to."

"You don't want to go back to Bridlewood?" I asked, confused. Why wouldn't she want to return to a place she knew so well? Sorry, roleplaying a bit too hard there.

"No," she said. "I mean I wouldn't want to go back to the human world, even if I could. My old life was so dull, and I was unhappy. Being here and going on this adventure has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. As Izzy, I've never felt more comfortable in my own skin. Even if things aren't going to plan."

I spotted Pipp nodding in encouragement, and possibly also in agreement to that sentiment. I certainly understood the feeling. "That's true," I said. "Being in Equestria is a dream come true for me too. But we can have our world's magic back, and things can go back to how they were!"

"How can we when so much has gone wrong?" Izzy asked. "How is there any hope left?"

I looked at Izzy from across the campfire, and remembered some words spoken in a book I had read a long time ago. "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. Do you remember the old stories?"

"Which ones?"

"The old stories we used to be told as kids, or foals I guess. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?" I paused. "But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed  with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why." I paused again. "But I think, Izzy, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t.  They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

"What was that?" Izzy asked.

"That there’s some good in this world, Izzy… and it’s worth fighting for.”

Hitch looked at me. "Did you just quote Lord of the Rings?"
> I'll Take the Stairway to Heaven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Considering the potential danger the world could have been in, the world around us couldn't have been more peaceful at sunrise. I'd made sure to sneak out of the tent nice and early to get going on a nice surprise for the others. Well, mainly for Pipp. The 'argument' we'd had, if you can really call it that, had left me quite worried for her.

I mean, she was right to say what she said. This whole mess was rather my fault, and if I was going to get their trust back I was basically going to be living through a redemption arc for a bit. Luckily, I had an idea what I felt could fix their problems and tickle their taste buds at the same time.

So, I got the things I needed out of a bag. Pancakes, butter, some cooking oil, syrup, that's all you need. The butter goes both on top of the pancake and in the pan in case you're wondering, so that way the pancake can still cook properly and not stick in the pan. Trying to dig a stuck pancake out is a nightmare, even with utensils, although using utensils isn't too hard in this world given everypony seems to have magnet hooves. I still haven't figured out how that works, incidentally.

Izzy had left her grill for me to use. I was left cooking responsibilities when out on the road, as whilst I appreciated her offer to make food in a microwave, it's nice to have properly cooked food after a few days on the move.

I got back to work, and adjusted the temperatures to get the food cooked properly. I got the pancakes suitably browned, and we ate them together to start the day. Safe to say I think it helped to repair our bonds a bit.

But after breakfast and we were all done eating, things didn't entirely go to plan. We couldn't agree on a route to take. Hitch wanted to take a road over the mountains as it was shorter as the dragon flies, whereas I favoured our original planned route of Ghastly Gorge, as it was flatter and easier to follow despite being longer in terms of miles.

It was quite the debate that followed, and it ended with us splitting up and taking different paths. I'm not sure who thought that was a good idea considering the state of the world, but it had to be the case or else we'd never have left that campsite. Small losses, big wins, eh?

Anyway, we soon left camp and made our separate ways onto the terrain. We headed into the gorge and saw all the things around us. Safe to say it was pretty amazing to look at. We went onwards, passing under ledges and into the nearby terrain, and made sure to stay safe and watch our steps.

WELCOME TO GHASTLY GORGE NATIONAL MONUMENT. WE WELCOME CAREFUL TRAVELLERS. So they'd had National Parks and Monuments, huh? Interesting bit of trivia they don't allude to in the show. I wonder why?

As we headed into the gorge, we suddenly found an abandoned wooden building, which was somehow still standing despite the apparently centuries of a lack of maintenance. Buildings were scattered all around, again all empty and falling apart. This must have been the administrative centre of the area based on how they were all arranged. The Parks system back in the human world often had nerve centres where the staff would work from, and outlyer stations where they could be posted for the day.

I pointed to the building. "There could be vital clues in there, not to mention supplies. We'll need to keep stocking up if we're gonna keep moving along."

Izzy nodded. "Good idea!" She opened the door and we both went inside.

We stopped and looked about the interior of the building. To be honest, seeing buildings abandoned as they were when in use is something I've always found pretty creepy. Things were left all over the place. A newspaper sat on a desk, somehow still readable despite the date being hundreds of years in the past. The devices around hummed, and the shelves were still stocked with produce and products, waiting for the customers who would never come.

It was that eerie. It was like I'd stepped onto the set of a horror movie, and any second now Leatherface would jump round a corridor and chase me with a chainsaw. Or Gollum would ask if I had seen his 'precioussssssssssssssssssss'.

As I looked through some documents, Izzy looked in a fridge. "Donuts!" she said, suddenly.

"Izzy, you shouldn't eat those. They're probably hundreds of years old, and you'll be sicker than a mule if you eat them." Considering the pressure we were under, we couldn't afford to waste time on treating the party for medical issues. It's not as if they just gain extra life points for being given medicine. Besides, eating severely out of date food is an incredibly bad idea.

"Isn't that offensive to mules?" Izzy asked. I certainly hadn't seen a mule. Were mules still alive, even? This entire journey I'd seen nothing but ponies. I know the dragons come back at some point, but as far as I was aware the other races don't exist anymore.

"Are mules even alive in Equestria anymore?" I asked. "I know ponies  and dragons are still about, but the others? No sign of them yet."

We continued to dig through the documents. I found this whole process very bizarre. When defending G5 on message boards, I frequently pointed out that the characters lacked critical knowledge as there are gaps in the historical record, and as a result lacked information we viewers had. As a result, they were basically archeologists, digging through evidence to find the truth.

And here we were, doing the exact same thing, trying to piece together the past from leftover documents.

"Sunny! Look at this!"

I trotted over, and saw Izzy was holding a flyer. "The Battle of Thunder Bay National Historic Site? Come and visit this historic battlefield, which celebrates the Earth Pony victory over the unicorns and pegasi. Don't miss out on the cyclorama of  Gadsden's Charge and the shrine to earth pony liberty."

Was this their version of Gettysburg? I looked over and saw Izzy's face looking confused, so I prompted her to speak.

"I looked at unicorn history before I left Bridlewood, and I read that Thunder Bay was a unicorn victory!"

"No doubt each tribe believes they won the battle. If we get the earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus narratives together, we can figure out what really happened by noticing the similarities!"

We spent a few more minutes looking around inside, including being noticably disheartened by some very racist toys, before we got on our way. After a while of walking, we soon began to climb out of the gorge and into what appeared to be some mountains and cliffs. It was absolutely stunning, and the mountains seemed to glisten with imperial majesty. Why couldn't the show have shown us this?

I, however, was growing uneasy. The path around us was littered with things lying about. Metal, what appeared to be vehicles, and one shape that looked eerily like a pony. Some sort of disaster happened here?

Well, sort of. We soon came across a huge war memorial. Some sort of battle had happened here, and it seemed the earth ponies had been on the defence against unicorns. The text at the bottom proved to be especially painful, though.

TO THE BRAVE SOLDIERS WHO NEVER CAME HOME.

That brought back some unpleasant memories. I tried to swallow as best I could, but holding it back proved to be hard.

And Izzy noticed. "What's wrong?"

I looked down, not wanting Izzy to see how I felt. "Back in the human world, I had ancestors who fought in the Great War.  One of them never came home. He's still out there, somewhere, unable to leave the battlefield. He died in the service of his  country in a completely pointless war. And the same here. All of this could have been avoided if everypony had just sat down and talked! So answer me this- how can ponies be so cruel to one another?"

Clearly being here was having a severe emotional toll on me, as I broke down again for the second time in two days. Thankfully, Izzy was much more understanding than Pipp had been. "Hey. If it's any consolation, we can work to prevent a war like this from ever happening again."

"What chance do we have of preventing another war if Twilight couldn't prevent one?"

Izzy paused, but what she said next reminded me that, behind the wackiness, there's remarkable wisdom in there. "I don't know. But that's no reason to not try."

Suddenly, a series of loud noises sounded nearby, and something pulled itself over the clifftop and looked at us.

My nightmares had somehow stepped into reality.
> None will Hear my Story
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The machine stood there, looking at us. There was no mistaking it. It was the exact same one from the first nightmare. Everything about it matched up with that vision all those days ago.

"How can that be here?" I asked, my voice shaking in fear. "That thing's been haunting my nightmares!"

Before I could say anything else, the machine shifted forward so it was closer to us. And exactly as it had done in my nightmares, the front plates began to shimmer and shake before retracting backwards, revealing the cockpit behind. And sure enough, as in the nightmare, the pilot was wearing striped clothing.

"Indeed," he said, his voice dripping with contempt and smugness, "and I have been in your nightmares, Sunny Starscout. Or should I say Tom?"

Wait. How did he know I wasn't originally from here? I looked at Izzy. "What the Heck? How does he know that?"

I'd asked that more as a rhetorical question than anything else, but before Izzy could open her mouth the pilot answered the question for me. "I know the truth of this world. And it is a depressing truth indeed. This reality was not meant to be, and the one before it should still be. And the bronies who moved forward deserve to perish for their foolishness. Isn't that right, Jimmy Hook?"

Wait a second. For a brief period back in the human world I'd had a pen friend of that name. He was a nice guy, even if he was rather eccentric, and we'd liked a few of the same things even if we hadn't ever met in person. So this Jimmy Hook guy the pilot had mentioned and JimmyHook19 were the same person? And had he gone through the same thing I had all that time ago?

What was going on?

Now it was Izzy's turn to be asking questions. "How do you know that?"

"I know the names of all the traitors," the pilot said with sickening glee. He was clearly enjoying this, a lot. He leaned forward again and smiled once more, as if the thought of destroying us was bringing him pleasure. "Not that you would understand, given you enjoy being the Pinkie Pie clone."

I seemingly took a lot to tick Izzy off, but that seemingly did the trick. "I am not a Pinkie Pie clone! I'm very different to Pinkie!"

"You make stuff, have a giddy personality, and make friends." Not only did this guy dislike us, he also clearly had a superficial understanding of the differences between Generations 4 and 5. I mean, it doesn't take that much effort to disprove the thesis that the Mane 5 are carbon copies of the Mane 6!

Izzy, of course, noticed this. "Nope! I didn't have any friends when I started my journey, and I don't  break the fourth wall anywhere near as much as Pinkie did!"

The pilot seemed annoyed by this, and waved his hand. "That is irrelevant. I thought I'd killed them anyway to stop them  getting in the way of my plan. I can only assume she got in the way again. But no matter. Things are proceeding on schedule, and it will only be matter of time before Generation 5 is wiped off the face of the multiverse like the abomination it is."

The plating moved back into what I can only assume was combat position, before the machine fired up and something began to whine. "Let's see how much of a fight you put up compared to Sprout. I would say I enjoyed talking to you both- but I really didn't. Prepare to die!"

Then a message cut straight through my mind. Especially you, Sunny. You made me look a fool online all those years ago, and you shall pay for your actions, just as Joshua did.

I then made the connection in my mind. I knew who this guy was. But there was no time to explain this, as we were under fire.

The machine began to fire off a set of enery cannons that lit the snow a bright red. "I ALWAYS PREFERRED MY UNICORN BURGERS WELL DONE!"

We had to get to cover so we wouldn't get absolutely plastered. "Run!" I shouted, as I dived behind the wreck of a tank. We certainly got lucky, as it seemed whomever had given him the weapons hadn't given him the brains to use them properly.

The blasts of laser fire were soon joined by conventional bullets. Explosive bullets, may I add. These were slamming into the ground and blowing things around with a series of explosive detonations that were ripping the snow apart and blowing chunks of earth everywhere.

"The auto targeting must be off," I heard the pilot say. That or he was an atrocious shot. I somehow suspect the latter was more likely. "No matter. The end will come, and I will flatten you!"

We had to find a way to stop this thing before it turned us into streaked pony bacon, and for that we had to find a way to fight back. I began to formulate a plan in my mind and had some ideas. I stopped as an arm smashed some equipment near me. "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Stop and stand so I can flatten you!"

"What makes you think we'd do that?" I replied. "We will stop you!"

"Wrong, on both counts," he said, as more energy fire flew my way. Good thing I'd stopped. Else I wouldn't be here to tell the story. "Not even the fools who screwed around with me online can stop me! This world shall feel my wrath as the other dimensions did so long ago!"

Even more evidence for who I thought this guy was. I then got lucky; I spotted a nearby vehicle that appeared to have what we needed. "Look! That tank still seems to have a working cannon!"

So myself and Izzy dived into it. I was able to figure out how to load it without too much difficulty, and there were still plenty of shells left in it. Hopefully at least one of them was still live.

And it was. "Still live! Here's hoping this'll do the trick!"

Izzy, who was positioned at the fire control station, looked at me. "Are you sure this'll work?"

"At the very least it'll give him a nasty headache!"

I looked out, seeing that machine continue to stalk around, and eventually it stopped in front of us. Perfect.

I couldn't resist saying the line. "Surprise, motherfucker. FIRE!"

The cannon was triggered, and ten pounds of explosive shell slammed into the machine, knocking it back and damaging part of the armour. The pilot was annoyed, and to our surprise wandered off down the hillside rather than attack again. Clearly he had been given a nasty headache.

I opened the hatch and we climbed out, both quite surprised by what we had witnessed. "Izzy. I think I know who that guy is."

"Who?" Izzy asked.

"Chris Chan."

Izzy tilted her head at me. "Who?"

"In internet circles he's an infamous guy best known for plagiarism, creating characters that combine bits of multiple characters with no originality, writing a nonsensical comic which serves as a power fantasy for him, managing to offend everybody (which is quite an impressive achievement), and generally being not a nice person. Did I mention he's crazy?"

"I figured as much," Izzy said quietly. "But why does he like you and this world particularly?"

"Well, as you know Generation 4 came to an end in 2019. Chris couldn't bear the thought of the show ending, and convinced himself that Princess Celestia had told him that Friendship is Magic would get five more seasons despite the fact the show ran out of plot around Season 7. As a result, he got very annoyed when Generation 5 was revealed as it didn't line up with what he wanted, and he went on a lot of rants about it, including one claiming that the human world would be thrown into chaos if G5 came out. He got proven wrong on that one, but somehow he's found a way to jump to this world and wants to destroy it!"

"But what about you?"

"That's easy to explain," I replied. "Sunny's voiced by Vanessa Hudgens in the film- it's her voice coming out of my vocal chords right now. A long time ago, a troll pretending to be Vanessa made Chris do lots of foolish things. So the fact a character in a setting he likes was voiced by somebody he associates with a bad memory presumably set off his desire to destroy this reality. Though what did he mean about killing them? Is that somehow connected to us being here?"

I sighed. "I've also spent some time doing some soul searching, and I think I've finally got my feelings sorted out. I'm definitely a lesbian, no denying that, but I don't know you hugely well, so I think it's for the best we remain friends for now."

"OK!" Izzy said. "No point rushing in with anything!"

I smiled, as at last Bridlewood loomed before us. Journey's end.
> Out and About
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, there we were, trekking through Bridlewood. THIS PLACE WAS SO COOL! Seriously, I was on the verge of a nerdgasm just being here!

All around me, the colour just seemed to be popping off trees and objects. Crystals glowed so intensely they could have lit the way at night. Hmmm. Maybe I should pop out at night and see if they are bioluminescent, I thought to myself. This place seemed like it was just soaking with secrets for me to figure out!

The pathway led through a gentle grove of trees with the sun shining through them, which helped to keep the climate cool and not too hot. Which was quite nice, as I had started my journey in a fairly humid place. No wonder earth ponies have such short fur; it's better suited to the climate.

I glanced about me to see what else was going on. My friends were all busy chatting with one another to find out what had been going on whilst they were away. Izzy seemed to be particularly focusing on Sprout. I mean, I understood that. Him appearing here had rather thrown me for a loop as well. What could he be up to? I mean, my last interaction with him hadn't been under positive circumstances, but he seemed quite subdued here. Much quieter. His normal self would probably have brought some means to wage war on the unicorns and called them savages or something like that.

And yes, I am aware people drew parallels between him and Governer Ratcliffe in Pocahontas. Who'd be the title character in that situation? Izzy, presumably, but who then would be John Smith?

Anyway, I noticed Sprout seemed to be happily chatting with Misty. Well, that was... weird. If this was the normal Sprout, he wouldn't even consider talking to the other races. He'd probably be calling her racial slurs or something like that- Misty had told me a guard called her 'frizz face' in reference to her mane, which carries all sorts of unfortunate implications.

Still they seemed to be happily conversing as if they were close friends. Which was odd, as they hadn't interacted at all, as far as I knew. Misty had vanished partway through our journey, but we don't know where to. Maybe that's another mystery for me to solve.

Pipp seemed to be quite animated in her conversation with the others, so I held back and observed. I'd learned my lesson about barging in and bamboozling the speaker with questions. Awkward.

I continued to hang back and mentally observe the landscape around me, which continued to stun my eyes. And the rest of me, too. It seemed to stand and glow with incredible majesty, the old trees reaching high into the sky and casting shade over us like benevolent protectors.

What stories could they tell if only they could speak?

And I didn't mean that literally. I'm pretty certain swamp fever's been extinct as a disease for a long time. I'd read something in dad's study about the disease being systematically eradicated as somepony had figured out how to artificially mass produce a vaccine based on flashbee honey.

Well, that's going to save a lot of ponies horrible deaths.

But was I really myself? I just noticed I'd referred to Argyle as 'dad' in my thoughts again.

Where did I stop and Sunny begin? This is getting too confusing!

I dropped in next to Hitch to speak to him. "Sooo, what happened to you when you were away from the rest of the group? I don't remember the suit from our travels."

Hitch looked at me. "If you must know, Sunny, I picked these up in a mine when on my way to Zephyr Heights to help you. Turns out earth ponies rely quite heavily on coal for power. Anyway, me and Pipp were escorting each other through this twisted forest which looked like somepony had thrown a nuclear party there."

"Sounds unpleasant," I said, glancing down quickly.

"Anyway, we advanced through some odd town, and fought our way into some old buildings. The place was really eerie, and had been the site of a mayonnaise accident. Turns out the stuff is toxic to unicorns."

I paused for a moment. "That explains so much. So, what happened next?"

"We got ambushed by this Chris Chan guy who locked us in the old building!" Pipp interjected. "We had to find our way out and try to survive in the wasteland! Totes not fun. Hey, at least we're still here now."

This news worried me, as had much news recently. How could this be the case? Chris had been fighting me and Izzy during the same time? How could he be in two places at once?

His speech indicated he was some sort of reality warper, if he was able to move things from the original dimension to the one in which G5 takes place, but how could he be in two places at once? That's impossible!

Yes, I know that being turned into a pony is technically impossible, but the internal logic of the G5 world didn't exactly support teleportation, unless it was Izzy mysteriously bouncing from place to place with no apparent rhyme or reason. Speaking of which, I need to find out how that works. It's all very mysterious to me.

Anyway, we soon reached a split in the path we were taking, and began to head downwards deeper into the forest. The shade patterns had started to change, shifting the landscape from a smoother landscape to one filled with odd trees and bushes, with the light having a curious watery effect. I know that image doesn't make a lot of sense, but the light did genuinely look like a watercolour painting in motion.

We were now at the bottom of the hill, and waited for Izzy to finish doing something. She stood there and waited for a moment, before suddenly changing tack and speaking quite suddenly. Something she does a lot, admittedly.

"Hello house!" she called. "I've missed you!"

Pipp looked confused. "Who greets their house?"

"Izzy, apparently," Hitch said.

Sprout peered at the phenomena surprised. "Perhaps it's some sort of unicorn ritual?" He then looked to Misty. "Any suggestions, Misty?"

Misty shrugged. "Don't look at me! I'm not from Bridlewood!"

"Whatever it is," I said, "it clearly means something to her. And as long as she's not hurting anybody by doing it, I don't see any reason to worry."

Shoot! Said 'everybody' instead of 'everypony'!

Still, we watched as Izzy produced the key to the house and opened the door. I had long since stopped wondering how we were able to pick up or manipulate stuff with our hooves, but it also suggested something, also shown by cutie marks.

Magic wasn't gone entirely. In fact, it still existed in the world in small amounts if both cutie marks and the ability to manipulate objects with hooves was still with us. Not only that, we know magical artefacts lose their magic last, so maybe Twilight put the power for both into two artefacts and hid them extremely well?

Hopefully we'll come across this at some point in our journey, as that'd be pretty cool to see. Not only that it'd be one in the eye for G5's detractors.

We were now standing in the atrium of the house, and boy was it nice. La Caza Izzy was just as vibrant and warm as I remember it. And it would be my effective home for the foreseeable future.

Which reminded me. With Sprout here, perhaps Maretime Bay hadn't gone to pot. Possibly the place was being run more sensibly now? Which means there's a chance the Lighthouse will survive this time around!

Hooray! I wouldn't be homeless, I thought to myself.

As I examined an odd music machine that played the My Little Pony theme, I suddenly spotted a basement door nearby. Already I began to have flashbacks to an infamous fan story that caused so much uproar back in the day. "Izzy, is that a basement down there?"

"Yep!" Izzy replied, as chipper as ever. "I make my cupcakes down there!"

Horrific thoughts flashed before my eyes. Did Izzy have a dark side, like Pinkie? That wouldn't be fun to find out on a dark night.

Izzy saw my face, and patted my shoulder. "Relax, I'm just kidding! I actually do my baking up here in the kitchen. Why would I bake things in a place with no cooking facilities or ventilation?"

We all sat down for a cup of tea. Turned out Izzy was short on crafting supplies for her crafting plan to turn us into unicorns, so she'd have to go get some more tomorrow.

I think we can afford a day's delay, but obviously the house wasn't designed to have this many occupants in it at once. So, we set about setting up beds.

I was more than happy to help. After all, the alternative was sleeping on the floor, which I didn't really fancy to be honest.
> If I can Dream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke, I was suddenly in a very strange place. I looked around me, and glanced about. "Hello? Is anypony there?"

I noticed something oddly fluffy against my legs, and glanced down. I seemed to be lying on a cloud of some sort, and this cloud was floating in outer space. Light seemed to stretch outwards into infinity. Planets and stars twinkled in the distance, distorted and glowing in a way that only occurs within a planetary atmosphere. That's why star appear to twinkle in the night sky, incidentally; distortion from our atmosphere.

But the light seemed to be producing an unusual effect on the landscape. More clouds were formed up on the side, and small television screens seemed to be floating as well, attached to nothing as well.

It was all very strange. And a bit confusing too. I glanced about again and got to my hooves, feeling the softness of the cloud against them. That was another thing that didn't make sense. I was somehow standing on a cloud. But only pegasi could do that before the magic cut out. How was I doing it? I'm not aware of alicorns being able to do it, and I'm not an alicorn- yet.

It was in that moment I realised what was going on. "Am I in a dream somehow?"

I decided to move forward, to try and see a bit more of the landscape around me, soak up the infinity of the stars as they flowed away into the night sky. It was absolutely beautiful, and my eyes soaked it all up in wonder. If such wonders existed in the mind, and the subconscious, then we as ponies truly have limitless potential.

Suddenly, my eyes were drawn to another source of light before me. A small glowing orb was in front of me, and as I strained my eyes slightly I saw what appeared to be the outline of a pony inside the orb. I couldn't make out any particular features, though.

"Sunny," the voice from the orb said. It was the same one I'd heard in that first nightmare.

"Yeah?" I said. "That's me." I looked puzzled. "Isn't this the place where you sing about my destiny then turn me into an alicorn?"

"No," the orb said, once more. "The world is a place not requiring alicorns right now. And there is no need. I already transformed you, didn't I?"

My mind flashed back to that email which changed the course of my entire life. The moment that I became Sunny.

"You sent that email!" I said, in amazement. "Trust me, you have no clue what bronies would give to get to be ponies in Equestria for a day! But aren't you meant to be speaking about destiny right now?"

"I'll admit I haven't played that," the orb said. "I've been rather busy speaking to all of you. Of the eight heroes I spoke about, seven you have encountered for your journey."

I thought to myself. "Hmmm. Eight. Well, there's myself, Izzy, Pipp, Zipp, Hitch, Misty, and I strongly suspect Sprout is one of us given he's not acting like his movie counterpart. But I have no clue who number eight could be."

There was a pause. "You will meet her again in due course. In the meantime, I am here to tell you that things are on course."

I looked down. "Sure don't seem on course to me. Zephyr Heights ended up in turmoil because of what I did. There's a mad dictator there trying to cause chaos like Sprout did in the movie. And it seems we all had some tough fights on our way here. How did Chris Chan get into this world of all places? I thought he was too busy rambling nonsensically about Generation 5?"

"It gets worse, I'm afraid," the orb said. "He is driven forward on his crusade in the belief that this world is the product of Russian propaganda made to further the Kremlin's war aims."

I blinked. "You're pulling my leg."

The spirit sighed. "I wish I was. For all the TV he watches he barely seems to understand how media production and television actually works, not to mention uses his fantasy realm as evidence. I know not how or when he acquired the power to jump through to the G5 world, but we have to save it."

"Who's we?" I asked. "I'm not sure everypony was willingly pulled through the time vortex to this land."

"Unfortunately, history sometimes needs a push," the orb replied. "But I can confirm some are grateful. Hitch wouldn't be here today were it not for the intervention."

The voice stopped for a moment as images began to flash on the screen. It showed us on our adventures. Having fun. Getting along. Doing good for the world.

"Your bonds continue to grow and foster connections," the orb said, the voice indicating they were pleased. "Although Zipp is not with you, I can assure you she is safe and well- I spoke to her a few nights ago and she is doing well, all things considered."

The images changed once more to show... dad?

The orb spoke once more. "Your father would be so proud of you to see what you've accomplished," the voice said. "But I can assure you that you and he shall meet again someday."

I looked down, interpreting that in a dark way. "I'd rather not think about death, to be honest."

The orb floated in front of me. "He loved you dearly. He forged you into the mare you are today."

"How?" I asked. "I've only been Sunny for a month! How can I have been shaped by a stallion I never met yet still feel compassion towards? Where do I stop, and where does Sunny begin?"

The orb sighed. "Memory blending. This happens sometimes. Never fear; you shall never lose what makes you, you. I must go now, so carry what I have said forward into the world, and help to save it."

The light suddenly increased to fever pitch and was so bright I covered my eyes with my foreleg.





When the light faded I was lying in my bed in Izzy's house. I glanced about and saw it was dark outside. The rain was falling and bouncing off the windows, and this produced some very unusual soundscapes.

I glanced about and saw the other ponies were asleep. Some of them more noisily than others. Seriously, I had no idea Sprout snored so loudly.

I looked about myself, trying to process what I had just seen. Somehow I'd been sitting in bed in the exact same posture as when I'd been in the end of the dream. How did that work?

I quickly pulled myself out from under the sheets and slipped onto the floor, trotting along the wooden floorboards as quietly as I could in order to avoid waking the others up. I'd placed my bag on the wall at the side, just under a window, so I could easily find it if I needed to. I pulled the bag out, and undid the clasp on the bag before slipping the journal out and flipping through it.

That spirit had said all sorts of confusing things. She was aware of Gulfstream? I mean, I assumed it was a she based on the voice, but that's besides the point. I had to find anything dad had unearthed in order to find the truth about what's going on.

Well, there I was again. Referring to Argyle as dad again. He wasn't even my biological father! That honour goes to a train driver back in the other world.

My brain was getting so mixed up. It seemed the more time I spent here my old personality was increasingly getting swamped by that of Sunny, which was giving me existencial dread.

I flicked through the pages in the poor light, trying to find what I was looking for. Old maps, notes about events in the past, a figure called Princess Erroria who seemed to be a different pony type in different times, a couple of other things, and then finally what I was looking for. A diary of sorts!

I looked at it closely, trying to find what I was looking for. But it was just some stuff about a flying city made of cloud.

"You're gonna hurt your eyes trying to read in these light levels."

I looked over my shoulder and saw Sprout standing there. He looked concerned- an emotion I don't usually associate with the guy.

"I guess it is a little dark to be reading," I said. "You know, I wasn't expecting you to be up too."

Sprout shrugged. "The rain woke me up. I only things are OK in Maretime Bay. I left the place in the hands of the army as they've moved lots of stuff there."

I looked confused. "Huh?"

"I'll explain in the morning. Let's get back to bed and try to get some sleep."

As I felt my eyelids drooping I couldn't argue with him on that one. A shame Izzy hadn't brewed any sleep tea.
> Through the Rocket's Red Glare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I soon lost track of how long my eyes were glued to that journal. I continued to scan through it, trying to find clues about what was going on in the world. Perhaps dad had found something in his travels which would illuminate me as to what was coming next? I continued to flick through the pages to try and locate some useful information, but I was soon at some sort of dead end.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Argyle was a great guy, based on what little we've seen of him in the show, but he wasn't perfect. And I don't know about you, but I think he could have done with investing a few more skill points in hoofwriting.

Because his was absolutely awful. I know he probably didn't have access to a typewriter in the field (and I can't recall seeing a computer in the Lighthouse- come to think of it the only computer I saw was on the technician's desk where Tootise and Sweets were working at the CanterLogic demonstration, and it was one of those super blocky ones from the 1980s), but he could at least have put a bit more work into making it comprehensible.

The words snaked across the page like spider's webs, making it very hard to read. I had to focus very hard on the text to try and make sense of it. However, after some looking I found something that I thought would do the trick for figuring out what was going on.

One of the pages concerned a strange object that dad had found whilst travelling the frozen north. I'll admit I wasn't aware there was a frozen north, as the show was yet to go there, but it made sense given the place where the Crystal Empire is seems to be constantly buried in snow. I flipped through some pages and found some more notes on it.

There seemed to be this thing called a Nova Charm, which was often found inside a rocky container. And this object apparently could open portals and allow for travel from one place to another virtually instantly. Fast travel? This was getting more and more like Skyrim with each passing second.

And in studying how this thing worked, my eyes opened wider and wider as I had a profound realisation.

I knew how he had done it.

I knew how Chris got to Equestria, despite this being apparently impossible. Somehow, he had gotten his grubby fingers on a Nova Charm and used it to travel from one dimension to the other.

But how did he get his hands on one, and why was he able to use one? And furthermore, why were these things apprently just lying around for random people to find? You'd think this sort of thing would be highly sought after by the military, as it would allow them to move armies across the planet in the blink of an eye.

This was all quite confusing, and my thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling sound.

I glanced down, and realised it was my stomach. I had gotten so engrossed in my reading I had forgotten to eat.

No sooner had I realised this, then a voice spoke. "Hey, Sunny."

I slammed the book shut and swung the chair round. "H- hey Misty! Sorry. You startled me there. How long have you been standing behind me?"

Misty shrugged. "About twenty seconds," she said. "Any sign of Izzy?"

Truth be told she hadn't been anywhere when I had woken up, so I assumed she'd already left for Vanhoover when I woke up. "No, she left earlier. We're on our own in the house and can't risk leaving in case we spark a riot amongst the locals." Just as I said this, the sun shone clearly through the window and onto my fur. I glanced out of the window and sighed. "And such a shame it is, because it's a lovely day out there."

"What were you reading?"

I quickly glanced down to Argyle's journal, and looked back up to Misty. "Oh? This little thing. This was just my dad's journal. He collected all sorts of things in there. Notes, maps, bits of historical info, his own thoughts- some of it is a tad disorganised, as he tended to write about whatever came into his mind."

What just happened? I mentally referred to it as Argyle's journal, but called him dad despite him not being my biological father in a sense? Pick a name and stick with it, brain!

I sighed, realising what was further going on. I wasn't just Sunny physically. It seemed with each passing day her emotions and feelings were swamping my own ones I brought from the human world. "I meant Argyle's journal," I said, quietly. "I'm just so confused. I know I didn't come from here originally, but I keep feeling Sunny's emotions and thoughts. What is happening to us?"

Misty gently placed a hoof on my shoulder to try and reassure me. "Perhaps this could be for the best. You've got the best of Sunny and whomever you once were rolled into one. And you know the show. We know what's coming, so can best plan for the future."

I will admit that's an advantage we have that Sunny lacked. But a fat load of use it had done us up to this point. "That is true. Thanks, Misty. Now back to decoding the stuff in this book."

"No problem, Sunny. Now I need to get something to eat. Would you like something bringing?"

I shrugged. "I'll come down in a minute. I've only got a few pages of this chapter to read."

Later on, I heard Misty and Pipp chatting. Great to hear those two are getting on better now, after the fight they had on the road. I settled back into my book and continued reading, keen to uncover more secrets. Possibly of starlight, but perhaps not, as we have stars well figured out.





Later on, I was downstairs trying to figure out how to make pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast, as it would be nice to eat together before we launched off into the chaos of the Crystal Tearooms. I sighed and relaxed a bit, working on the recipe before a loud crash attracted my attention.

I dashed over to the window to see what was going on. And what I saw was adorable!

Misty and Sprout were there, just gazing into each other's eyes, utterly smitten with one another.

I didn't say anything, but this resulted in possibly the largest grin ever recorded in the history of Equestria appearing on my face. Because it showed two major things.

Not only was there somepony for mystery, proving that the old saying that every bread has its cheese is true, it also meant that Sprout was a human too. He wouldn't be acting like this if this was the old Sprout. The old Sprout would never have fraternised with other races this way.

And I knew precisely what Misty was going through. I'd had the whole 'butterflies in the stomach' routine when I'd first met Izzy, and although that had cooled down a lot since that first day in Maretime Bay, I still knew the feeling all too well.

I turned away from the scene to give them some privacy, although I doubted they knew I was there watching, and got back to work on my recipe, which was going to be great I had no doubt.

After a bit, I heard the door opening, and I turned to see Izzy home with some shopping bags and other supplies. "Hi Sunny!" she said.

"Hey Izzy!" I replied. "I take it the expedition went well?"

"Oh, you bet your sparkle it did!" Izzy said, plopping two bags on the ground and producing several more from nowhere. "Loads of card, plenty of glitter, and lots and lots of glue."

"Watch you don't start sniffing it, OK?" Sprout said.

Izzy looked at him. "I don't sniff glue!" she said. "That would hurt the glue's feelings! How would you feel if somepony randomly started sniffing you?"

I was about to point out Izzy had done the same to me, but then realised she actually hadn't all those weeks ago in Maretime Bay.

"Right," Sprout said, before he and Misty vanished into another room.

Izzy trotted over to me. "I also got some surprises for us." She produced some paper bags and placed them on her table. "Iced jelly donuts!"

My eyes went wide. When I was a little kid I had loved going to the bakery and picking those up for me and my folks. And that brought the memories flooding back. Shame the baker went out of business. But I still have the memories.

I looked at Izzy. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Izzy said. "Now then, want to help me make dinner?"

"Gladly," I said. "What's it tonight?"

She slipped the recipe over to me. Wow. I hoped my taste buds didn't explode from this dish!
> Nopony wins when Everypony's Losing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, the next day was here, and we were all gathered around the table in Izzy's main room, or kitchen I guess. The two rooms just kinda ran into each other with no clear division as to which was which. This was quite common in these homes, it seemed, as I'd encountered a similar setup in flats and such in the former world. Hence, it made sense for the world here to replicate it seeing as life in Equestria echoed the human world in so many ways.

As we sat, sipping tea, and calmly drank it, I was consumed by concern. What if this mess I'd set into motion came to catch up to us? True, we had one fewer dictator to deal with, given he was here with us and seemed to be much friendlier than I'd expected. I looked down and sighed quietly.

But the other dictator we'd accidentally put into power would not be beaten so easily. I had messed up big time on that front. We could be doomed, if all we knew, so we had to get those crystals back together and get magic up and running. Or else we may never have the chance.

It seems Izzy noticed my agitation. "What's wrong, Sunny?"

I looked over to her, the panic visible in my eyes. "I can't help but feel we're running out of time!" I replied. "I've completely lost track of what day it is, and we don't know how long we have left until shit hits the fan!" I chose to keep my confusion over who I was quiet at that moment. At this point in time my needs on that front were firmly less important than the needs of the entire nation we were in.

Hitch didn't massively approve of my choice of words. "Language!"

"Hitch, this is a stressful situation," I said to him. "I think I can be allowed to curse every once in a while." Funnily enough, it has been shown that cursing can be an effectice way of relieving stress- hence the old saying 'swear like a sailor'. Those guys drop expletives like it's punctuation! Anyway, I turned my eyes back to Izzy. "Izzy, I'm serious. We don't know where or what Gulfstream and his goons are up to out there. They could be about to launch an attack on Bridlewood, and if that happens we've been cost our only chance at bringing back magic."

Sprout glanced over. "I thought bringing the tribes back together was dependant on the leaders putting a photo back together."

I internally facepalmed. The photo itself didn't trigger the return of magic; it was what the act symbolised that did the deed. You have no clue how many times I've had to explain this to people online!

Pipp then spoke up. "That's not a lot of use if Bridlewood's on fire and two tribes are at war."

"Pipp does have a point, Sprout," Izzy said. "Well, I did the trip yesterday and got the supplies so- wait, I have an idea!"

"What's that?" Hitch asked.

Izzy turned her attention to Pipp. "Pipp, can't you use phone data to check whether the General is going anything?"

Pipp produced her phone and did some clicking quickly. She frowned, then looked back to me. "No can do. I've already tried that. There isn't WiFi in Bridlewood- seriously, how does anypony get anything done?- and the nearest C-Net tower is over 100 miles away. Put simply, this device won't be able to pick up anything around here."

True that. The unicorns appear to be the least advanced of the three tribes. Izzy said she went into Vanhoover on a steam train! And yes, I can already hear all the railway enthusiasts writing in and saying there's no such thing as a steam train, but I'm only using the words she used.

"That sucks," Misty said.

Pipp sighed again, clearly frustrated over being unable to check her apps. "Sure does. All this sitting about." She glanced up to Izzy. "Any progress on the plan?"

Izzy smiled. "Well, I think I've got the basic plan nailed down. We go to Bridlewood, go into the tea shop, get the crystal, then come back here. BOOM! Magic restored!"

That's kinda what I was gambling on too. They only had two crystals in the movie, but if we had all three (as I had the earth pony crystal) perhaps we could turn it back on earlier?

"No, I meant the disguises," Pipp said.

"Oh!" Izzy said, quicky topping up her tea. I'd probably best stop there to be honest. It'd be awkward during the dancing game if I kept having to go to the little fillies room. "Well, yesterday I  went out and purchased all the things that I needed to buy to make it  work. All that card took up a lot of space in the other place!"

I looked up at her, deciding to drop in some movie dialogue to move things along. "So, Izzy, can you do it?"

Izzy grinned as she looked back at me. "Flip baked beans and deposit them on the floor? Yes I can!"

No mention of Scoop, Muck, or Dizzy then. Or even Rolly. Oh well. I needed to focus. The next song would not only make us look like unicorns, but they would allow us to act and talk like convincing unicorns as well. So I needed to focus, even as I heard the music fade in. "No, make us look like convincing unicorns."

Before we could discuss the issue any more, we suddenly felt a familiar song fade in behind us, and we hopped to our feet. If I knew anything about how this world seemed to function, it was that when a song began, we had to complete it correctly or else the world wouldn't let us progress to the next step. As I'd found out the hard way in Maretime Bay when the background music kept constantly looping when I got the words wrong.

Misty, luckily, filled in Zipp's part, and before long we were fully kitted out as unicorns. I gotta say Izzy did a fantastic job of making us look like convincing unicorns, even if Pipp as a pegasus was a bit harder to disguise as Izzy had to work fabric round her wings to hide them from view. Hopefully nopony pulled at that.

For most of us it was a case of sticking a cardboard horn on our heads, with unique spiral patterns. After all, as Izzy herself points out in the rap breakdown, 'every unicorn who's born has worn a horn that's unique.' The patterns she came up with even matched elements of our own biology, which I thought was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, it was my turn to slip up over words, as I accidentally got us held up by forgetting words that only occur on the album version of the movie's soundtrack. Very awkward, I know.

And the constant teleportation into and out of voids got really confusing after a while. I quickly lost track of where I was in the world as we got randomly shunted between different locations. But we made it at last.

With that done, we headed off into the forest and towards the Crystal Tearooms. It was a nice day in Bridlewood, but most unicorns looked too lethargic to notice, most of whom just lay about and did nothing. One mare standing under a tree did nothing to move as apples dropped on her head, the repeated word 'ow' becoming a regular refrain behind us as a common beat.

I glanced about to see the light produced by the crystals, and smiled. This was seriously pretty. Certainly worth getting pulled across dimensions for. After all, gotta take the good with the bad.

Izzy noticed me looking at them. "We have loads of lovely crystals, but I don't think that's the one you want to collect," she said. "The real one is in the Crystal Tearooms- but you'd already know that."

Hitch glanced over. "We all have watched the film. We're on a level page, somewhat, but there are some things that I don't  recognise. Lore that has changed since we were in the human world?"

"Maybe?" I suggested. "All I know is I want to write it all down!"

Hitch then spotted the colts doing nothing. "What's got them down?" he asked. "Why aren't they using magic?"

One of them looked up, and spoke- inexplicably in a British accent. "You said a bad word!" he said. "Quick, before we get jinxed!"

They then did the dance, and after Izzy explained what not to do to avoid setting off the jinxies, we pushed onwards and headed to the tearooms.

After a quick conversation with a jaded unicorn over whom to talk to, and slowly made my way over to the counter. Alphabittle was there, his back turned. He seemed to be looking at a photograph. I can't recall that being there in the film.

I cleared my throat. Now or never.
> Prance the Night Away
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tea, please."

Alphabittle indicated to one of the rat things without ever turning around. I sat there, formulating my plan in my mind as to how I was going to do this.

A teacup was pushed into position and a machine poured a dark brew into the teacup. Another creature stepped closer and carried what appeared to be a jug of milk to it.

I raised my hoof. "Hold the milk."

I waited for the response, and the results did not surprise me in the slightest. Alphabittle turned around and looked at me. "You have unusual tastes, I see. Not many have it without milk. Hope I don't blast your tastebuds into orbit that way."

I sighed, and relaxed on the stool. "Please allow me to introduce myself."

"I presume you're a mare of wealth and taste," Alphabittle finished.

So it seems the Rolling Stones exist in this world as well. That's interesting. Or perhaps a ponified version of them. I smiled. "You could say that about me. I collect unusual and strange things which catch my eye."

"A fellow collector," Alphabittle smiled, as he went back to cleaning glasses. "One stallion's trash is another stallion's treasure, after all. Any particular direction?"

"Old relics," I smiled. I know I'm repeating that descriptor a lot, but it's what I was doing. "In fact, I see something that catches my eye on that shelf."

Alphabittle smiled. "Oh? That thing? Nopony knows where it comes from. We just found it in a building one day and kept it in here. I won it off another guy in a poker game, actually."

"Well, I'd like to try my hand for it."

Alphabittle turned and a competitive face moved across his own. "Well, you certainly are confident. You usually play for big prizes?"

"I don't play, I win."

"Big words for such a little pony," Alphabittle said. "Seriously, you must be one of the smallest unicorns I've ever seen!"

Now was my chance to say the line the fandom turned into a meme. "I think you'll find I'm average height." That, incidentally, was the origin of the 'My Average Height Pony' meme which lit the fandom on fire.

The pony in front of me seemed a tad confused, but nodded. "Right. Well then, if you're playing for that, you'll need to be putting something similarly big on the table in return. You can't win big rewards without big risks, after all."

I nodded. "How about this?" I slipped a hoof into my bag and placed the earth pony crystal onto the top of the bar. I'd meant to grab the pegasus crystal but had clearly put my hoof in the wrong place.

Alphabittle peered at it in confusion. "A snowglobe?"

"Sorry, wrong one," I said. I put the earth pony crystal away and popped the pegasus crystal down in its place. And when I did his eyes went wide with delight.

Izzy suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and led me to one side. "Err, Sunny, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Course it is!" I replied. "I was a pro at solving those things in the old days, and my brony group hosted regular Just Dance parties. This will be a cakewalk!"

"If you and your friend are done talking," Alphabittle said, "you have a contract to sign."

I nodded. "I got this covered, Izzy. Trust me."

Izzy dropped back uneasily. "OK. As long as you know what you're doing."

I smiled. "We'll have those crystals faster than you can say jumping jellybeans!"

I trotted back over to the bar and took the pen before scanning over the contract. It was a mountain of boring legalese followed by a signature box and a date box. Contracts ain't a problem to me. My mom was a lawyer, and confusingly worded documents were her specialty.

I signed my name and added the date, before pushing it back. "Good. Now give me the cube."

Alphabittle snorted. "Big prizes deserve big challenges, average height pony. And this is a big prize. BRING FORTH THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!"

Some more of those mouse creatures wheeled a machine onto the floor. It had a rolling display of large button combinations, and similar buttons laid into the floor. A combo metre ran up one side, and the back seemed to be powered by things running in a wheel.

Will, this didn't really fit the aesthetic.

I glanced about. "A dancing game."

"Not so confident now, are you?" Alphabittle snorted, as we took our positions. "Listen, kid. If you win just one round, that crystal is yours. But I thoroughly doubt your short legs will be able to keep up with a pro." He glanced over. "Get my polishing kit ready."

The beatnik pony then spoke up. "Both ponies agree. Best out of three."

Wait, that isn't what we agreed at all! You can't just make stuff up!

The first combo came up, and I smiled. Surely this couldn't be too different to doing this with two, legs?

And I settled into it very easily. I bounced between the buttons like I had springs attached to my hooves. Combos were flattened under my hooves as if they were paper. My combo metre continued to fill rapidly, much quicker than Alphabittle's was.

"Keep it up, Sunny!" Izzy called.

I glanced over my shoulder to see the others cheering me on. "That's the spirit, Sunny!" Pipp shouted. "Let the rhythm take you over!"

"I'm certainly feeling it!" I said, as I continued to float across the display. Seriously, this was really easy. Just follow the patterns and try not to fall over. Easy as pie!

Alphabittle looked over in surprise, his eyes open wide in shock. Not only that, he was breathing pretty heavily, indicating he was struggling to keep up. "How... is... she... doing... this? I've... never... seen... somepony... play... this... well!"

I hopped onto more combos, keeping up easily with the music and the beat being presented. I glanced up to my combo metre and saw it hit the top of the bar!

The winning flag deployed on my side. The world seemed to stop moving for a second. I looked at it in amazement.

"I... I did it!" I said to myself. "I won!" Once I had collected myself I jumped in the air. "Yes! Only had to win one round!"

I couldn't hear what Alphabittle was saying, but he passed the crystal to me anyway before vanishing to his bar. I could only wonder what he was doing whilst I went to celebrate with my friends.

But as we celebrated, I suddenly felt something hit my forehead. I glanced down and saw the fake horn was on the floor. I looked around in a panic to see what had happened. "Oh shit."

A loud clunk was heard, and I looked up to see Alphabittle put down a blowpipe. Why had the thought to do that? "Just as I suspected," he said. "An earth pony." He began to walk towards me, trying to back me into a corner. "Now give me back my crystal, and the other one too."

Why would I give him the other crystal? He hadn't won it! "B- but I won!"

Alphabittle snorted so loudly I could feel the breath on my own muzzle. "No you didn't. The paperwork you signed specified any unicorn who wins. You aren't a unicorn, so cannot win by default. That and you tricked me. I know exactly what you are."

Urgh! Bucking legalese!

Izzy spoke up in turn. "Alphabittle, aren't you being a bit ha-"

Alphabittle turned and glared at her. "Izzy, shut up. Don't concern yourself with things you don't understand."

Izzy backed away in shock.

"You're a spy, purple mare. I always knew you were an earth pony. Your tiny brain clearly couldn't spot we sign with the day first, not the month."

Oh shit. I'd assumed this world worked like the United States on that front! "Look, maybe we can come to a deal-"

Alphabittle drew even closer. "There is no deal, spy. The only thing we do with spies is string them up- we have plenty of trees to hang your kind from. Did you really think we'd let you go and report back to your spymaster especially given  Fillydelphia recently started rearming?"

Wait, what? The earth ponies rearming? When did this happen?

I looked to Hitch. He seemed to be giving Sprout a few odd looks.

I tried to evaluate my options. On the one hoof, I couldn't outfight this guy. On average, a mare is physically weaker than a stallion, and this guy was a wall of muscle. On the other hoof, if I could find a way to get out through a window-

"She's not alone!"

I looked over to see Pipp ditching the coat and throwing the horn on the floor before flaring her wings. "I'm not a unicorn either. I'm a pegasus, and she and I are friends!"

There were collective gasps of shock from all assembled as Pipp looked at them, defiant. "Don't think about touching her."

"I knew it!" shouted a unicorn. "The earth ponies and pegasi have allied to take over our lands!"

Pipp shuffled closer to me to give some protection as Alphabittle closed in on us. "You tried that trick at Thunder Bay, but it won't help you now. Now then, you'll have a 30 second headstart-"

Then Sprout joined in, pulling his own horn off. "I'm an earth pony too," he said. "I know I don't look like much, but if you let your bigotry consume you then you'll just be miserable."

Only for Hitch to follow. "I'm an earth pony as well. And I will not tolerate my friend being spoken to that way."

Thanks for the support, Hitch! Is somepony going to say they're Spartacus in a few moments?

Izzy then chimed in. "And I'm a unicorn!" she said, with a grin. "But you probably knew that already."

Just one member of the team remained to speak up, and speak up they did. Misty stepped forward into view- a very brave act given her crippling stage fright. "And I'm also a unicorn, but you probably didn't know that seeing as I'm not from here."

What happened next threw us all for a loop. Alphabittle seemed to freeze, and looked at Misty in a mixture of amazement and shock. "Can it really be?" he asked. "After all this time... my Misty has returned to me?"

We all looked back and forth at one another, very, very confused. Where did this come from?

Izzy, luckily, broke the silence. "Ooh! That's who you were referring to when we passed on my way to the train station!"

I was about to correct Izzy, as technically there's no such thing as a train station, but Alphabittle began speaking first. "And why am I not surprised she's with a group of enemies!" He grabbed Misty and pulled her towards him. "Well, you've lost your little hostage."

"Wing! Feather! Magic! MAYONNAISE!"

The entire room went silent. It was as if somepony had hit pause on a movie.

And then the chain reaction began.

"Bing!"

"Bong!"

Before long, those words were echoing across the interior of the tearoom, rendering any unicorn (barring Izzy and Misty of course) unable to move. I dashed over and grabbed the two crystals and stuffed them in my bag before we ran for the door.

We dashed through the forest to try and find safety. This was utter chaos, but I had so many questions. For example, when was it established that Misty was Alphabittle's daughter? I don't remember that being brought up at any point in Make your Mark!

We eventually pulled into a clearing, and stopped- and who was there stunned me. Boy were Zipp and the Queen a sight for sore eyes!

After a tense standoff between the tribes, that mad pegasus broadcast a message which unnerved us all. Something about fire and brimstone. As a result, an alliance was forged to bring him down.

And so, without a chance to check the crystals, we headed back to Zephyr Heights. Time for a counter revolution, I guess.